A Continuing Nightmare
by JohnLocke4
Summary: Clementine listened to Lee and left him for dead so she could get out of Savannah safely. Yet Lee wasn't dead, rather his body was weak from blood loss and he simply passed out. Now a day later he awakes still in the jewelry store, alone. Will Lee be able to get out of Savannah and if he does, will he ever get back to Clementine?
1. A Continuing Nightmare

Lee looked up at Clementine for what he was sure was going to be the very last time, he figured that he didn't take the arm off fast enough and he was already infected. Clementine looked at him with tears in her eyes and slowly turned around heading towards the back door. Lee let out a slow exhale as darkness overtook him, Clementine looked back one final time only to see Lee's body slump to the side resting his head on the radiator.

Nearly one day later Lee's eyes slowly flickered open, he let out a ragged breath and started to look around the room. Just at his feet he saw the security guard that Clementine was able to handcuff and kill while he sat helpless. He let out a deep groan of pain as his arm almost burned at any small move he made. "I'm dead, aren't I dead?" Lee thought aloud in a weak whisper. His head was pounding and his throat was burning, nothing made sense to him as he couldn't help but think that he never should have woken up.

Lee pushed forward with all his strength and nearly got to his feet before crashing back down to the floor. He took several heavy breaths and looked around the room, all he could see was the destroyed showcases for the jewelry. Suddenly his eyes bulged open, "Clem? Clementine!?" He shouted out yet it only came out as a weak gasp. He narrowed his eyes now with a new found energy and reached his one arm out towards the baseball bat right near the caved in walker skull. Lee gritted his teeth as his whole body pulsed with pain as his body was forced to stretch out.

Lee pushed through the pain and finally he felt his fingers wrap around the bat. He pulled it towards him and let out a relieved sigh while letting his body rest for a second. Using the baseball bat as a balance he tried to get up once again. His body continued to fight against him but Lee once again pushed past it all and finally got to his feet. His legs held him up, but just barely, he looked around the store once again, "Clem, are you there?" He asked again but to his fear he heard no response.

He took a step forward and immediately his legs gave out. Lee let out a little shout as he stumbled forward and luckily he was able to catch himself on the counter. He took a sharp inhale as his body tried to completely collapse under him, he gritted his teeth and once again pulled himself upright. "Come on." Lee grumbled out as he looked back towards the closed off security room. He pushed his body back off the counter and started to shuffle towards it, he started to check his pockets and let out a small sigh of relief feeling the handle of his meat cleaver still tucked between his belt and pants.

He carefully pulled out the blade and started to walk towards the door he last saw Clementine go through. He pulled the door open and grimaced as he saw a long staircase to walk up. He pushed the meat clever back into his belt and took hold of the railing and started to make his slow descent up the stairs. As he was climbing he was trying to work out how he was even alive right now, surely he wasn't infected anymore, that much was evident. Yet when he told Clementine to leave him he felt as though that was it, he was going to die any minute. He stopped taking heavy breaths as he got to the halfway point of the staircase and looked over to his stump. The bleeding had nearly stopped and Lee let out a small smile seeing that after everything he wasn't just going to bleed out.

He took a large breath and started to climb yet again, he was nearing the top and could see two doors. One lead to the roof while another lead to what he could only assume was an apartment. Just as he neared the top the railing came loose causing Lee to lose balance, mere seconds from tumbling backwards down the stairs Lee let his body fall down. He landed hardly on his stomach and slid down a few steps before halting. He let out a deep grumble before crawling up the remaining steps.

He once again pulled himself upright which would have been ever harder if not for the door handle to the apartment. He turned towards the roof access door but paused, "Clem could be in there." He thought and pulled the meat cleaver out of his belt. He turned the handle of the door and readied himself for what was to come. The door let out a creak as Lee pushed it open with his foot. He looked around and slowly entered the apartment, "Clem?" He called out softly only to hear an audible growl from behind him.

He quickly turned back and saw the rotting carcass of a women shambling towards him. "Shit!" Lee exclaimed as he weakly slammed the meat cleaver into its head, yet to Lee's horror the walker kept coming. "The hell?!" Lee yelled out confused as he tried to pull the cleaver out while backing up. Lee stumbled and fell to the ground as he ripped the meat cleaver out of its head, the walker now oozing blood from the gaping wound fell to its knees ready to rip into Lee.

Lee let out a yell and kicked the walker sending it back for a few seconds. Adrenaline was coursing through Lee's veins as he reached out and took hold of the cleaver once more. He kicked the walker a second time and sent it onto it's back. Lee let out a furious yell as he dove onto the walker and began to smash the cleaver into it's skull multiple times turning it into a gooey mush. He let out one final angry yell and put a final blow into the walker's skull, confirming it's demise.

Lee took several deep breaths as his body started to come down from the adrenaline rush. He could hear an audible sound of something wet slapping against the floor and peered over only to see his wound dripping with blood yet again. "Fuck." Lee said wide eyed. He knew that if he didn't stop the bleeding that would be it. He got to his feet and looked around the room, he saw a stove in the kitchen that was hooked up to a propane tank.

Lee stared at it fearfully before slowly making his way towards it. He let out a shaky breath as he turned the propane on as well as the stove. To his relief as well as his horror it turned on, he quickly looked around and saw a small frying pan and placed it over the small flames. While the pan started to heat up he slowly undid the bandage wrapped around his stump. His stump started to drip blood onto the pan that let out a loud hiss. Lee was shaking violently as the fear of what he was about to do finally set in. He picked up the pan after a few minutes and took long breaths.

He put his stump out straight and quickly pressed the pan onto it. Lee let out a window breaking scream of pain as the pan started to sear his wound. Lee continued to yell as his vision started to blur, he continued to press the pan onto his wound for as long as possible. It became completely closed as Lee felt his legs turn to jello and let him fall to the floor. He let out some weak sputtering breaths as his began to slip into unconsciousness once again, just as his eyes started to drift closed he heard a voice, "Lee?"

 **Hope you all like the first Chapter of my new story, the idea kinda just popped into my head one night and in all honesty it was the only way I could ever see Lee surviving. Anyway tell me what you think of the premise and just a little bonus this story will work it's way into season 2 eventually.**


	2. Escaping Savannah

darknessarising

Great concept, please update.

 **Thanks bud, hope you like this chapter as well.**

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 **Enjoy**

Nearly forty-eight hours after Lee cauterized his stump he finally awoke, his eyes flickered open slowly. He looked to his left and saw his stump wrapped up with fresh bandages, and at this point he realized that he was now laying on a bed and not on the floor. He looked around and saw that he wasn't even in the same building anymore. He let out a deep groan as he sat up, "Fucking Finally!" A voice said from across the room,

"Molly?" Lee asked shocked as he saw the short blonde woman sitting on a dining room table,

"Oh you remembered my name, how sweet." Molly said sarcastically as she hopped off the table and started walking over to him,

"How long have I been out?" Lee asked slowly swinging his legs around and placing them on the floor,

"Well you've been in and out but if you don't remember that then I guess two days? I think so at least." Molly said as she dug through a bag and grabbed a bottle of water. She walked over to him and handed it to him, "Here, drink up."

Lee quickly snatched the bottle and after a moment of struggling to take the cap off he downed the bottle in the matter of seconds. "Thanks." He said after taking a deep breath and dropping the bottle. His face dropped and he began to rub his eyes slowly,

"So, what? They decided to leave you behind when they got on the boat?" Molly asked leaning against a nearby couch,

"No." Lee said hardly as he continued to rub his eyes, nearly in tears,

"So you got bit and split? Come on Lee what happened?" Molly said pressing him,

"Vernon stole the goddamned boat. And some fucker...some evil fucker took Clementine." Lee replied,

"Who? Do you know where she is?" Molly asked quickly,

"Not with him, I told her to leave me." Lee finally looked up at her with red eyes, "I got bit and cut off my arm. I killed the guy who took her but I thought I was dead, my body was failing me." Lee said hanging his head, "She walked out that building where you found me and I don't know where she is. I told her to look for Christa and Omid, that's all I have to go on." Lee said with a small shrug,

"Jesus, what about everyone else? What happened to that guy in the baseball cap, the kid and Christa and Omid?" Molly asked once again confused with what happened,

"Kenny and Ben…." Lee said with another drop in his voice, "He tried to do right by him."

"Who?" Molly asked,

"Ben, he was trying to make it up to Kenny and all of us but something happened. We were leaping over to a different rooftop and the balcony he was using collapsed under him, impaled the poor kid." Lee said shaking his head,

"Shit." Molly said shocked,

"Me and Kenny went down to help him, but he was just too loud. The walkers heard his screams and they cornered us in the alley. Kenny...he just pushed me away and stayed out there. He made sure Ben didn't suffer but….I don't see how he could ever get out of there." Lee said with a small sniff remembering the loss of his friend, "Then Christa and Omid got separated when we got closer to Clem, I told them to meet us by the train. They are gone by now, with or without Clem."

Molly's eyes went soft and she walked over to him carefully putting his hand on her shoulder, "I...I'm sorry Lee." She said with a drop in her voice that came off very sincere. After a moment's pause Molly let out a sigh, "We need to leave Savannah, that herd that showed up has infected this city even worse than before. And who knows, maybe we can find Clem along the way." She added trying to sound hopeful,

"We?" Lee replied peering over to her,

Molly looked at him and narrowed her eyes, "Yes we, you seem to forget that I just saved your life. Add to the fact this herd was brought here by your loud fucking train, so Lee you owe me one." Molly walked over to a shelf and began to stuff items into a bag, "I mean I drag you from that shit jewelry shop and treated your wound so I don't see this as asking for much."

Lee paused and took in everything she said for a moment,"So this is where you stayed ever since Crawford?" Lee asked getting up,

"Yeah, first floor has a truck blocking the entrance," Molly said as she walked over and grabbed another backpack, "Not that it matters now, This whole city is just swarming with the dead, we need to get out while we can." She said shoving the bag into his hand, "Fill that with whatever you can find."

Lee let out a small sigh and started to look around the room, he felt so hopeless more than he ever had. "Alright." He said as he picked up a bottle of water and dropped it into the bag,

"Perk up, you're alive." Molly said rolling her eyes,

"Doesn't really make me feel any better." Lee said shaking his head, "Alive or dead, everyone I knew is gone."

Molly paused for a second trying to find something to counter that with but she couldn't find a thing. She knew how he was feeling right now, despite everything that Crawford was that's where her sister was safe, at least for a time. Yet when she died and she left that place, she felt so hollow. It really wasn't until she met Lee's group that she started to feel something, and that freaked her out so of course she left. Yet here she was again, with Lee heading off to help him again.

Molly let out a soft exhale before saying, "So I figured out a plan, if we can find a car that can work I can distract the dead using the bells while you get it started and we just drive out of this place. Only problem is finding a running car without stepping foot on the street."

Lee looked over at her then thought for a second, "I know where we can get one." Lee said causing Molly to turn back in surprise, "The son of a bitch who took Clem had a station wagon, it's parked right in front of the Marsh House."

"How do you know it runs?" Molly asked with a raised eyebrow,

Lee's eyes narrowed and clenched his fist, "I know because he followed us all the way from Macon in it."

Molly's eyes went a little wide in surprise, "I guess that's gonna have to good enough." She said with a small nod. Lee finished packing his bag and slung it over his shoulder then struggled slightly to put it over his other one. Molly looked over at him sadly as she saw him struggle but she quickly stopped staring not wanting to insult him in some way.

"Hey Molly, do you have a gun?" Lee asked looking at her hopefully,

Molly let out an annoyed sigh, "Yeah, but don't fucking use this thing." Molly replied as she dug through her bag and passed the pistol over to him, "The last thing we need is for you to fire off a shot and drawing them all to us." Lee let out a silent nod and tucking it into the back of his pants, "Here, this is yours too." Molly said passing his meat cleaver back to him,

Lee let out a weak half smile, "Thanks." He mumbled out and slipped it into his belt. Molly gave him a small nod before turning around and leading him out of the small apartment. Lee followed her down a hallway way that lead to a small staircase, they walked up it and walked out a door that brought them back to the rooftops. Lee put his hand out blocking his eyes from the sun, "Damn, never thought I'd see the sun again." Lee said with a small smile,

Molly let out a grin, "Enjoy the little things where you can." Lee let out a ever so soft chuckle as they walked across the rooftops. After several minutes Molly grinned and pointed to her right, "There's your Marsh House, and there's our ride." Lee let out a nod in agreement. "So," Molly said looking around, "There's our church bell." She finally said after scanning the rooftops, "Should take me ten minutes to get there, ring it and get back. Think you can get that running by then?"

"Yeah, let's just get this over with." Lee said with a nod while he headed back towards the fallen sign that had separated him from Christa and Omid. Molly let out a nod and took off running towards the church tower. Lee reached the sign in two minutes and waited patiently for the bell to sound off. He looked down at the street and could see the swarm of walkers lumbering about. Finally three minutes later he heard the bell let out a large ring.

The walkers looked around and quickly started to shuffle towards the noise. Lee carefully made his way back down the sign once again and with a small jump landed on the ground. He started to remember his last march down this street when he was fighting his way through the herd. Now he walked through an empty street stepping over the walkers he had killed. He got to the station wagon a swung the door open.

He started to look around the car for keys, he was sure that they were in the car. He checked the glove box and let out a small grin as he saw the keys sitting there, "Still didn't learn." He grumbled out thinking back to the stranger as he put the keys into the ignition. The car immediately turned over, Lee threw it into reverse and spun the car around. He drove forward just a bit and looked back to the rooftops where he saw Molly sprinting towards him. He turned around and saw the herd slowly walking back towards him. "Oh shit." Lee said wide eyed as he slowly began to drive forward, "Molly! Come on!" Lee shouted from out the window.

Molly pulled out Hilda and stopped quickly, she jumped off the edge but quickly caught herself with the edge of her ice pick. Lee watched in amazement as she started to hop from window to window making her way down the buildings. Lee continued to let the car roll forward while the herd got closer and closer. Molly hit the ground and started to sprint at the car while the dead we just at her heels. Lee reached over and pushed the passenger door open for her. Molly got to the car and pulled herself inside, "Go! Get us the fuck out of here!" Molly shouted as she looked back at the herd that just started to hit the back window.

Lee slammed on the gas pedal and the car sped down the streets. He continued to head towards the outskirts of Savannah but he kept hitting roadblocks and hundreds of walkers, "Shit where do we go?!" Molly exclaimed as they started to get closed in, Lee narrowed his eyes and hit the gas pedal turned off road up a small hill. The station wagon just barely made it up the hill while they drove out of the city leaving it in the dust finally. "Where to now?" Lee asked as he let out a sigh of relief.

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and the return of Molly. Now that they got out of Savannah they have to find out where to go next. Lee wants to find Clementine but with nowhere to look that idea is dead in the water. Anyway leave a review telling me what you thought of it.**


	3. Truck Stop

smeake

Good chapter, can't wait for the next one

 **Thanks for the support, hope you enjoy this one as well.**

ShadowDemonIce

This is a good story, love it how you brought back lee. Also is Lee missing his arm?

 **Glad you liked the way I brought him back. As for his arm, yes it's cut off. I went with the realist possible way for Lee to come back, first he cut off his arm stopping the infection. Next he told Clem to just leave him instead of shooting him, after a long rest Lee regained consciousness.**

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 **Enjoy**

Nearly three weeks had past since Molly and Lee escaped Savannah, the first few days Lee stopped in almost every building they past looking for Clementine to no avail. Each day Lee felt his heart weighing on him, he knew he did the right thing telling her to go but he wished he made her stay. He is fine, minus an arm and she could be dead for all he knows. After the first week Lee silently gave up his search, he began to recede into himself barely speaking to Molly.

Molly on the other hand tried her best to give him space, she knew that he was in a living hell. The second week was by far the most awkward for her, as Lee would barely speak and ignore her when they were driving. They continued to drive north, not for any reason, in fact that had no plan. Without them talking they had never even thought of one slightly, they continued to let the road lead them along.

As the third week started to tick by Molly began to press Lee, trying to get him to open up. "So, I gotta know. Does it bother you?" Molly asked peering over to him while they drove down a mostly empty highway,

Lee took his eyes off the road and looked over to her, "Does what bother me?" He asked softly,

"The arm? I mean it must be fucking weird right?" Molly said with a small smirk,

Lee let out a soft chuckle, "I can still feel it, that's what is driving me crazy." He moved his stump, pointing it straight out, "Like right now, i'm wiggling my fingers."

"What? Bullshit." Molly said crossing her arms as she put her foot on the dash,

"Serious." Lee said with a small nod, "And I can't deny everything is a pain in the ass, but I can shoot and reload my gun. That's all I need now." He said returning to a stoic face.

Molly turned back and started rifling through the glove box, "So, who was this asshole anyway?" She asked referring to the stranger,

Lee let out a long sigh, "Few months back, we were staying at a motor inn. It wasn't a good place but we were making it. Problem was, we were running out of food. Macon was getting picked clean and we couldn't hunt worth a damn. Then one night we just come up on this car, not a person in sight with a bunch of supplies sitting in the back." Lee lowered his head for a just a second before looking back at the road, "Clementine told us not to take the supplies but we needed the food, so we took it all. Just opened the truck and grabbed everything, then walked away. Turned out the man was alive and us taking his food lead to his wife and daughter's death. He blamed us, and he wanted to take Clem away because he thought I was too dangerous to have her."

Molly shook her head, the thought of stealing the guys supplies wasn't sitting well with her. She saw that happen time after time in Crawford, people who weren't good enough to be in the community would either be killed or lose everything they had. "Sounds like you really fucked up. You had it coming." She said bitterly before realizing what she just said.

Lee's eyes narrowed and he slammed his foot on the brake causing the car to come to a screeching halt. Molly let out a little yell as he body pushed against her seatbelt. Lee turned to her with fury in his eyes, "Don't you think I know that!? That's all I can think, my friends, my arm, Clementine! All that fucking gone because of that choice! So trust me, I don't need to hear from you that I got what I deserved!" He shouted while almost trembling with anger.

Molly's heart was racing as she could tell that Lee was on the brink of snapping. She didn't even mean to say what she said, "L-Lee...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that." She said sincerely trying to calm him.

Lee felt himself coming down from his anger, he let his head rest on the steering wheel, "Doesn't matter, it's true. It's my fault, I made the call." He said with a drop in his voice,

Molly stared at the man and she couldn't help but feel like shit, he had been blaming himself every day since she found him and now she just tells him it was his fault. "Lee, you were looking out for your people. You didn't want to hurt that prick but it happened, everything after that, that wasn't your fault." Molly took a pause before continuing, "Back in Crawford, stealing, leaving people for dead. That was just what happened, I hated knowing that was happening and that's why I said that. It wasn't you, it was them, that fucking place."

Lee took a deep breath before sitting back up, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have blown up like that." Lee said softly, "None of this is your fault, all you've done is help."

Molly let out a small smile, "It's fine, I kinda deserved that one." Lee began to drive down the highway once again having calmed down, "So Lee, we need to figure out a plan here. We can't just keep driving aimlessly."

Lee let out a slow nod, "I know." He said with a sigh, "I've been avoiding it, just hoping that I'd find Clementine but it's just not going to happen." Lee licked his lips before saying, "Maybe we just find a place to hold up in for awhile."

Molly peered over to him, "Not much of a plan...but in lack of any other one, that's gonna have to do." Molly said with a little shrug, "Got any place in mind?"

Lee let out a sigh then his lips curled into a small smile, "Why not here?" He said pointing to a small turn off that had a few buildings,

"Here? A fucking truck stop?" Molly said dismissively,

"Relax, just for a few days. Then we can get a move on, they have to have a map in there that we can use to make a plan." Lee said turning into the parking lot,

Molly let out a little sigh, "Fine, maybe these places haven't been picked clean yet either. We're running a bit low on food."

Lee nodded in agreement as he shut the car off and tucked the keys into his pocket. He got out of the car and paused looking around slowly, his eyes locked on a truck that was parked. He pulled out his pistol and began to walk towards it slowly, Molly raised an eyebrow and followed closely behind him. He peered into the truck and didn't see anyone, he quickly put his gun back into his pants and placed his hand on the hood, "It's still warm, someone's here." He said taking his pistol back out,

Molly let out a groan, "Sonofabitch."

Lee started heading to the main building which was a simple gas station. He pushed open the glass door and kept his gun raised as he scanned the room taking small steps. He peered back and saw Molly holding back while he pushed further into the store. Lee started to look down the few isles yet still saw no one, he could feel his stomach twisting as he was getting concerned that he couldn't find these people. He took a step back while slowly lowering his gun.

He heard a crunch from right behind him and before he could turn around he heard a click from a pistol. He felt a cold barrel touch the back of his neck, "Put it down." The man commanded. Lee closed his eyes and let out a slow exhale as he dropped his gun to the floor. Just then Molly took Hilda and smashed a window causing the man to look over in shock. Lee took this moment to elbow the man in the face, he whirled back and dropped his gun.

Lee spun around and dove at the man who was clutching his nose that was dripping blood. Lee tackled him to the ground and began to punch him wildly, suddenly he heard a woman shout out fearfully, "Stop! Don't hurt him!"

Lee looked back as Molly ran in and jumped over the counter grabbing the young indian woman and forcing her against the wall. The man Lee was on let out a yell and slammed his fist into his face, "Let her go!" He commanded with a southern twang that sounded very familiar to Lee. The man picked up his gun and put it to Lee's head, "Do it or I kill him!"

"Kenny?" Lee asked in shock while staring at the man in shock while he pressed a gun to his head.

Kenny's eyes went wide and he looked down at Lee slowly pulling the gun away from his head, "Lee?" He replied just as shocked.

 **Alright so here we are three weeks after the escape from Savannah and Lee is reunited with Kenny! At this point Kenny had already met back up with Sarita and they have a budding relationship. Also just a side note, this Lee and Kenny were good friends.**


	4. Reunion

smeake

Woo! Kenny's back, can't wait for the next chapter

 **Yeah Kenny return, that will be good for the both of them because right now they are both broken men.**

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 **Enjoy**

"Holy-Holy shit." Kenny said wide eyed as he stared at Lee, "Lee, is that really you man?"

Lee let out a wide smile, "Yeah, it is."

Kenny jumped to his feet and took Lee's hand pulling him up, "Well what do ya say?!" Kenny exclaimed pulling him into a quick hug, "I thought we lost you for sure!"

Lee shook his head, "Me? What about you, last I saw you were in an alley that was surrounded by walkers."

Kenny let out a nod, "I-I don't really know what happened. I put down Ben and just started to push through them, in the end I just got lucky, really lucky." He said thinking back to the day then he let out another smile, "God it's so great to see you, where's Clem?" He said looking around,

Lee's face dropped and Kenny's eyes turned to sorrow, "I don't know." Lee whispered out,

"That fucker still has her?" Kenny asked furiously,

"No, I saved her but she had to leave me. I don't have any idea where she is now." Lee said as he wiped his eyes that were starting to tear up,

Kenny's face softened and he reached out putting a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry pal, but you did your job. You saved her." He said softly,

Molly slowly let go of the woman and walked over to them dropping her hood, "Good to see you're still kicking grandpa." Molly said with a smirk,

Kenny looked over at her in a bit of shock, "Guess you're the reason he's still kicking too?" He said pointing his thumb back to Lee,

"Yeah well what can I say? You guys are always in need of my help." She said with a grin as she crossed her arms,

"Thank you." Kenny said sincerely, Molly shifted a bit unsure how to respond.

Molly gave him a small nod before they heard the woman from behind them, "Um, Kenny? Who are these people?"

"Shit, sorry. Guys this is Sarita." Kenny said with a wide smile as she walked over,

"Hello." Sarita said with a small wave,

"Sarita this is Molly." He said pointing to her, "And this is Lee. Lee here is one tough sonofabitch. He was in charge of our last group."

"Was I?" Lee said with a raised eyebrow,

Kenny looked over to him dismissively, "Well it wasn't Lilly and it sure as shit wasn't me." Kenny said with a smirk, "So that just leaves you pal."

Lee let out a small smile but didn't exactly agree with him. "So are you two alone?' Sarita asked curious,

"Yeah, we were stopping here. Planning on holding up here for a few days till we could come up with a plan." Lee explained, "What about you guys?"

Kenny let out a wide smile, "Well pal, we already got a plan. Sarita here heard about a place up north, Wellington."

"Wellington?" Molly asked crossing her arms,

"Yes, it's a community located right over the line of Ohio. It's supposed to be the perfect location." Sarita said with a nod,

"Hear that Lee? I mean just think about it, cold at shit winters so the walkers slow down and friendly people. What's not to like?" Kenny said with a smirk,

Lee thought about it for a moment before letting out a single nod, "I guess, beats sticking around here. This place has seen better days." Lee said as he looked around the destroyed shop, "What do you think Molly?"

Molly let out a smirk and rolled her eyes, "I guess I can't really argue with that, this place is shit."

"That's fantastic, it will be so lovely to have more people around." Sarita said warmly,

"Yeah, here Lee why don't you and me go siphon the gas and clear these buildings." Kenny said as he turned back to him,

Lee gave him a quick nod, "Alright, you two think you can handle the other two buildings here?" Lee asked turning his attention to Molly and Sarita,

Kenny's eyes quickly narrowed, "Let's hold off on that, we should handle that together."

Molly let out a little scoff, "I'm sure we can handle it Kenny."

"We don't need to be taking any risks." Kenny said firmly then looked to Lee for support, "Come on Lee you know I'm right on this, hell you lost an arm picking up a hat."

Lee frowned at the comment, hearing it made it sound idiotic but he was right. Before he could say anything Sarita spoke up, "Kenny what if Molly and I search this building, we know it's safe. Would that be acceptable?"

"Yeah come on gramps let's get this show on the road already." Molly said growing irritated,

Kenny's jaw locked for a moment as he had a short internal discussion with himself, "Ken, it'll be fine. Let's just get this over with alright?" Lee said a bit sternly,

Kenny let out a soft grumble and let out a nod. Lee and Kenny both headed back outside and headed towards Kenny's truck. As they were walking Kenny paused and stared at the station wagon Lee drove up in, "Is that-"

"It is, it belong to the guy who took Clem. He wanted to get back at us for taking his food." Lee explained quickly while his voice started to turn more and more angry,

"But, how did he-" Kenny tried to ask but Lee interrupted once again,

"Clementine told him we did it. He tricked her, used her, tried to turn her against us...me." Lee said as the reached the truck. Lee suddenly slammed his fist into the car door denting it, he took a deep breath, "And it worked...but I killed the motherfucker." Lee grumbled out,

Kenny stared at Lee in surprise, everything that had happened between them and he'd never seen Lee go off like this. Not only that but it seemed he was always right on his edge ready to explode at the slightest thing. Kenny slowly walked to him and reached in the back grabbing a gas can and a siphon tube, "We, uh, we can siphon the gas out of this truck and put it in yours, this one ain't doing so hot."

Lee took another deep breath calming himself, "Alright, I'll take a look at these other cars." He said walking to a few parked cars in the lot without looking back at Kenny.

Back in the store Molly and Sarita were finishing lifting up a fallen shelf. Molly let out a smile as she saw a few cans and small snacks laying on the ground, "Perfect, just what we needed." Sarita said gleefully,

"Yeah, nice that people can still overlook some things." Molly agreed while kneeling down and picking up a can,

"So you were in Kenny's last group?" Sarita asked as she began to put food in her backpack,

"No, I just met up with them for a day. Then I left...or at least tried too." Molly said with a little smirk,

"Oh? Why did you do this?" Sarita asked curiously,

"Well they had this boat, wasn't big enough to take all their people with them. I was going to try and trade my way onto it but I guess I couldn't bring myself to do it." Molly said with a shrug, "I figured that group needed it more than me, But that didn't happen so whatever, right?"

Sarita gave a small nod, "So then you don't know anything about what happened to Kenny before then." She stated a bit saddened,

"No, but Lee should. He's been with him since the beginning." Molly paused then looked over to her, "Why do you want to know what happened to him before?"

Sarita let out a little sigh, "He's a wonderful man, extremely sweet and protective but something weighs on him. He won't talk about it but I feel if I knew then I could help him get past it."

Molly shook her head dismissively, "That's a dumb idea if you ask me, everyone's got shit they just want to forget. Bringing it up doesn't do anything but make it worse."

Sarita looked up at her sympathetically for a moment, then she continued to pack up the few food supplies. The two women got up and continued to look around the store grabbing any small item left behind. Finally after fifteen minutes, while they were checking over the counter Sarita asked, "So this man Lee, are you two involved?"

"What?! N-no! Why would you ask that?" Molly replied blushing ever so slightly,

"You seem to hold him in high regard." Sarita said with a smile,

"What are you talking about?" Molly asked looking at her confused, "I haven't even talked about him."

"My mother always told me to look at the way someone looks at others. When I see you look at him your eyes almost seem to light up." Sarita said with a warm smile,

"Look lady, keep you wacky theories to yourself alright?" Molly said quickly and picked up her bag walking to another part of the gas station. Sarita watched her a let out a small smirk before shaking her head and continued to check the counter.

Meanwhile outside Lee and Kenny were working on siphoning out the few cars that had fuel in them. They were able to gather just about half a tank which wasn't great but it would get them moving. "Getting colder out." Kenny mumbled as he picked up the gas can and started to walk back to the station wagon,

"Yeah." Lee replied with a small nod, "Figure it must be august, maybe september by now." He said looking around at the trees that's leaf's were all yellow and orange,

"This trip ain't gonna be easy, but what choice do we got?" Kenny continued as he started to pour the gas into the car,

"Can't be harder then what we've already been through." Lee said while leaning against the car, he took hold of his stump and rubbed it,

Kenny peered up and frowned, "How's that treating ya?"

"It pisses me off, can't do half the shit I used too. Hell can't even tie my shoes." Lee said irritated,

Kenny let out a small nod unsure how to respond, "Well pal, I'm sure you'll get-"

"Ken." Lee said stoically while looking at the highway,

Kenny looked up and his face twisted into anger, "You've gotta be shitting me."

They both watched as a horde of dead lumbered towards them, there may have been at least forty. Lee reached into his pocket and tossed Kenny the keys to the station wagon, "Go get Molly and Sarita."

"What about you?" Kenny asked confused. Lee didn't reply he simply pulled out his meat cleaver and started to march towards the horde. Kenny quickly ran into the gas station while Lee began to slam his cleaver into one of the walker's skull. "Grab your shit! We gotta go!" Kenny shouted out immediately,

"What's wrong?" Sarita asked running over,

"Shit load of walkers is right outside, we need to get into the car and get the fuck outta here!" Kenny exclaimed while taking her hand,

"Where's Lee?" Molly asked as she ran over,

"Holding 'em back!" Kenny replied as he ran out the door. Molly quickly pulled out Hilda and started to run out towards him. She spotted him slowly getting swarmed while swinging wildly, killing walker after walker. She ran forward and quickly swung Hilda driving the pick through the bottom of it's jaw and into it's brain.

"Christ! What is it with you?!" Molly yelled out as she pulled Hilda out of the walker,

"What?!" Lee shouted back while kicked a walker off his cleaver,

"You know you only have one arm left, you can't afford to go making mistakes!" Molly shouted back with a grin as she swung Hilda to the side smashing it into a walker's head. The two of them began to back up heading towards the station wagon while Kenny was starting it up and reversing it quickly.

"Get your ass's in here!" Kenny shouted from the car. Lee and Molly put their weapons away and turned back sprinting back to the car. The dead were nipping at their heels, Molly swung open the back door and dove inside.

Lee jumped into the back as well and slammed the door shut just as a walker smashed against the window of the door, "Drive!" Lee shouted, Kenny slammed his foot on the gas pedal and the station wagon tore out of the parking lot leaving the remaining walkers in the dust.

"Everyone okay?" Kenny said peering into the rear view window,

"In one piece." Molly said with a heavy huff while sitting up,

"So to speak." Lee said with a smirk while looking over to her. Molly peered over and let out a grin and started to laugh. Lee let out a chuckle and let his head fall back against the headrest, he shut his eyes. He was asleep within minutes, physically exhausted from his fight. Kenny let out a smirk while driving, despite everything that had happened he was happy to have Lee back along for the trip.

 **Alright so another chapter down and a nice reunion between Lee and Kenny. We also see that Lee has become more jaded as evident by his short fuse and willingness to charge a horde. Tell me what you think about this new Lee and if you think he'll eventually get past it. So anyway I'll see you all in the next chapter!**


	5. RV

smeake

Once he finds Clem, he'll eventually get past it, it's a twist I've never really seen

 **Yeah Lee would feel better to have Clem back but in the end he is really angry with himself, he feels to blame for everything because he told the group to take the supplies from the strangers car. So who knows how Lee will be around new people.**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

Twelve hours have passed since Lee and Molly met up with Kenny and Sarita, the group had periodically stopped the car to gather gas from cars along the highway as well as searching them for supplies. By ten at night they had a full tank of gas and even found some ammo for their guns, Kenny was driving while Lee was sitting in the front seat, he peered back and saw that Molly and Sarita were both fast asleep. He let out a little sigh and looked over to him, "Hey man, how are you feeling?" He asked quietly,

Lee who was resting his head against the window let out a little sigh as he was close to dozing off, "W-what?" He asked rubbing his eyes and sitting up,

"How are you feeling?" Kenny asked again looking over to him. Lee stared at him for a moment and said nothing.

"Yeah man, I'm fine. My arm-my stump doesn't hurt anymore. I got food in my stomach, i'm feeling as good as i'm gonna be." Lee mumbled out and looked back out the window hoping Kenny would just stop there,

Kenny let out a little sigh, "Look pal I know how you're feeling."

Lee turned his attention back to Kenny and stared at him. He felt his eyes well up and finally after a minute said, "I had her in my hands." Lee said with a small quiver in his voice, "She was with me and I made her leave. I wasn't strong enough, I just gave up. I was sitting on the floor and watched her walk away." Lee said while wiping his eyes with his hand,

"Knock that shit off." Kenny said abruptly, "You did all you could, you saved her from that crazy fuck. Hell you almost died, you gave your arm for that girl. You didn't leave Clem behind because you wanted to you did it because you had too. You did your fucking best man."

"It wasn't enough though was it? Here we are driving away without her, that's on me." Lee replied stoically,

Kenny let out a grumble, "You know Lee when my family died, I was mad at the world, at everybody, at myself. I lost the only thing I cared about, I still miss them more than anything. Would give my life just for five more minutes with them." Kenny took a deep breath calming his emotions, "But I've found other things to keep me going, Sarita, Wellington, hell even you man. So, I don't know, just don't let this world beat you."

Lee looked over to him with saddened eyes. "I...screwed up my life you know that. I had a wife that cheated on me and because of that I killed the man she slept with. I lost my wife, my family, they disowned me. I didn't see them again until we ended up in their store, that night I had to put down my brother. " He said as he rubbed his face, "After that night, I had one thing I was suppose to do, protect that girl. Without her...I'm lost, I don't have...direction."

Kenny pressed his lips together and clenched the steering wheel. Everything Lee was saying was exactly what was going through his mind when Katjaa and Duck died. He was lost, confused, angry and when he found someone he could blame he did it. Kenny may have been cruel to Ben but it did help him deal with his loss, Lee on the other hand had no one but himself to blame. Clementine may not be dead but she was out of his life. "You should grab some shut eye, I can handle this." Kenny said softly while keeping his eyes on the road.

Lee let out a small nod before leaning his head back against the window, he shut his eyes and finally fell asleep after ten minutes of listening to the hum of the engine. Unfortunately for Lee he was instantly brought into a horrid nightmare. The voices of the stranger and Clem started to speak slowly getting louder, " _I bet you don't even know how old she is…...Please, Please Get Up!...Okay Lee, I'm-I'm going…..I'm not a monster like you….My family starved in the cold!...Lee!"_

Lee finally shot awake trembling and sweating profusely, he looked around and saw Molly in the driving, "You alright?" She asked looking over to him,

Lee took a deep breath, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine." He said rubbing his eyes,

"Nightmare?" Molly asked a bit concerned,

"Yeah, a fucking bad one." Lee said as he sat up in his seat,

Molly let out a little click of her tongue, "Sorry, that shit sucks. Want to talk about it?"

"No. Just want to forget it." Lee said dejectedly as he turned and started looking out the window as the sun was rising. Molly watched him for a moment before turning her attention back to the road. After thirty minutes Kenny and Sarita were also both awake and Molly turned off the highway onto the first exit ramp, "Where we going?" Lee asked confused,

"Sorry forgot you were sleeping when we talked it over, we need to load up on supplies where we can." Molly explained,

"Yeah, ain't gonna get to Wellington running on fumes." Kenny said with a nod,

Lee let out a nod then Sarita piped up, "It's an excellent plan but I feel we should also look for a new vehicle."

"Why?" Molly replied as she let the station wagon slow down,

"This is a nice car but it will be cramped for us, if we can we should try and find a RV." Sarita replied,

Kenny smiled and let out a nod, "Great idea. That will make this whole trip easier, sure as shit." Sarita let out a little blush and lightly laid her hand on top of his.

Molly pulled the car to the side of the road and turned it off tossing the keys over to Lee, "Alright let's do this." Molly said opening her door and getting out of the car. Everyone else got out of the car and stretched while looking around at the small rural town they were stopped in, "We should split into two teams." Molly said while looking down the road for any signs of a herd,

"Sounds like a plan, you and Lee. Me and Sarita." Kenny said with a nod,

"Let's keep it simple here, three hours then we meet back up." Lee said firmly, "Last thing we need is someone getting separated or hurt with no help coming."

"That sounds smart, I agree completely." Sarita said with a smile,

"Right, let's get a move on people. Lee come on let's hit centertown." Molly said walking forward down the main road. Lee reached back into the car and picked up his backpack and slung it over his shoulder before running up and catching up to Molly. Kenny and Sarita both grabbed their own bags before heading off down towards a row of houses.

Nearly two hours later Kenny and Sarita were finishing of their fourth house. They were able to gather almost two weeks worth of food which made the whole trip already worth it. "So this man Lee, he seems...interesting." Sarita finally said as they continued to search through their fifth house,

"Huh? What do you mean?" Kenny said turning back around towards her,

"Well you called him your leader but he doesn't really seem to care about anyone right now." Sarita said a bit harshly,

"It ain't his fault, he just isn't himself right now." Kenny said defensively,

"I don't understand, what could cause such a change in personality?" Sarita asked curiously,

Kenny paused unsure if he should tell her everything, "Lee, he's a good man. He made mistakes before everything and after but he had someone to keep him going, focused. He lost her and now he just needs time."

Sarita watched Kenny and saw the sincerity in her eyes and let out a nod, "I understand, loss is hard for everyone." Kenny let out a small nod and turned around as he began to think about his family.

"Let's just finish up here." Kenny quickly said as he opened up a cabinet and started to search through it,

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend." Sarita said softly,

"No it's alright," Kenny said hanging his head, "I just...I know what he's going through. It ain't easy, and he won't be the same."

Sarita walked over to him and lightly put her hand on his shoulder, "You have a big heart Kenny."

Kenny let out a smirk and shook his head, "Yeah well, I've had my head up my ass for awhile now. I didn't care about anyone but myself, even blamed others. It's about time I start helping the folks I care about."

Meanwhile Lee and Molly were going through the stores in the center of town, most were empty but they were able to find some useful tools and even some ammo. As they walked out of their sixth store Molly spoke up, "So this plan, head to Wellington. What do you think?" She asked with a little smirk,

Lee continued to look around the town. He let out a small shrug, "It's fine, better than staying at a truck stop."

Molly let out a little scoff, "Yeah instead of trying to hunker down let's travel cross country." She looked over at Lee but saw he didn't even seem to hear her, "Hey wake up pal." She said while elbowing his arm softly,

Lee narrowed his eyes and looked over to her, "What?" He snapped out,

Molly was taken aback at his anger but she didn't back down, "'What?' You, you dumbass. Snap out of it, you need to get yourself under control. All you've done since I found you is just tread through each day."

Lee shook his head, "And that's a fucking problem? What do you want me to do?" He growled back to her,

"Yeah it is because you don't give a shit, you'd be fine if you just died." Molly shot back,

"How'd you come to that conclusion?" Lee said with a bit of surprise in his voice,

"People who want to live don't walk into a horde of walkers armed with a fucking meat cleaver." Molly said softening her voice a bit,

Lee looked back to her and let out a small sigh that turned into a groan, "I know." He said as he ran his hand through his hair, "I know but what can I do about it? It isn't like I can just decide to get over it."

Molly looked up at him and let out a small nod, "I know, I'm sorry. I get what it's like, I was like you when I lost my sister, it sucks."

"Yeah, you can say that again." Lee said then he stopped walking and let out a small smirk, "Please tell me you see that too." He said while looking in a nearby parking lot,

Molly looked over and grinned, "Hell yeah I do." She replied while staring at an RV. The two of them walked over to the vehicle and pulled out their weapons. Lee walked to the door and while Molly readied Hilda, Lee quickly pulled open the door and whistled. After a moment of waiting with nothing coming out they both stepped into the RV.

Lee moved to the front of the RV while Molly searched the back making sure that the RV was empty. Lee slipped his meat cleaver back into his belt and started to look through the glove box and sun blinders for keys but found none. He let out a grumble and turned back around to Molly, "No luck on the keys."

Molly held her hand up and pointed towards the small bathroom. Lee nodded and pulled out his meat cleaver while she pulled the door open. The two of them immediately let out a little retch as they saw a rotting corpse sitting on the toilet with a bullet hole in it's head. "Oh fuck me, that's gross." Molly said whirling back,

"Looks like he took the easy way out." Lee said as he reached into the bathroom and grabbed a small revolver still sitting in it's hand. He passed it to Molly who slipped it into her belt and started to check his pockets,

"What the fuck are you doing?" Molly asked quickly,

"Seeing if he has the keys." Lee coughed out as he slipped his hand into it's pocket. They both heard a jingle and Lee pulled out a set of keys, "Thank god. Now let's get this thing outta here." Molly let out a quick not and grabbed the corpse by and arm while Lee did the same. They quickly dragged it out of the RV and tossed it out the door before closing it. Lee walked back over to the bathroom and shut the door quickly and let out an exhale, "At least that's over with now." Lee said with a sigh of relief,

"Here toss me the keys, let's see if this thing runs." Molly said with a smirk. Lee nodded and tossed her the keys and began to search through the cabinets while Molly returned to the front seat. She let out a little sigh, "Alright now turn on you big bastard." She whispered out and turned the key. The RV let out a hum and let out a sputter before turning on. She let out a short cheer before checking the fuel. "Looks like the guy was just about to run outta fuel." She called back to Lee as she shut the RV off,

"Out of all the things to kill yourself over, I hope this guy didn't do it because of that." Lee said with a little chuckle,

Molly shook her head a let out a short giggle before walking over to him, "You know, I think this trip just got a hell of a lot better." She said looking around the RV. It came built with a kitchen and dining area along with a bunk bed.

"Yeah, we should head back to the car and go get Kenny and Sarita." Lee said as he turned back,

Molly stopped him, "It's only been two hours, thought you said three." She said looking at her watch,

"Yeah well don't think they'd mind calling it off early, besides we checked our fair share." She said with a shrug, "Besides what can we really get done in an hour?"

"This." She said and abruptly grabbed his shirt pulling him into a kiss. Lee's eyes sprung open in shock as she wrapped an arm around his back. Lee stood their as Molly smashed her lips against his, his mind was racing as fast as his heart. Finally after nearly a minute Molly pulled back and stared at him waiting to see what he'd do.

 **Oh boy, Molly and Lee! Bet you didn't expect that haha, anyway in all honesty let me know what you think about this little surprise. Also I hope you all are enjoying this little back story that will lead into season two, we know what Clem went through but we never knew about what Kenny did, So i'm also treating this story as a backstory for Sarita and Kenny. So anyway, I'll see you all in the next chapter and I look forward to your reviews.**


	6. Each Day

Guest

Kiss back Lee u deserve some pussy

 **Hahaha! That's got to be one of the funniest reviews i've gotten. Thanks.**

smeake

Haha that was a awesome twist, MollyxLee

 **Yeah thought I'd get a little twist going and to be honest I always thought that Lee and Molly had a natural connection going on.**

Roythemexican

Love this story so far!

 **Glad you're enjoying it!**

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 **Enjoy**

Lee stood staring at Molly with a shocked expression lingering on his face. Molly licked her lips and waited, wanting to see if he'd try to move forward. Lee's heart was beating out of his chest while he slowly lifted his hand and placed it on her cheek. Molly leaned her face against his palm and Lee finally pushed forward kissing her back. Molly let out a deep exhale relieved and wrapped her arms around him pulling him closer to her.

Lee desperately wanted to connect to someone, anyone and he couldn't deny that he felt something for Molly. Molly pushed him forward and Lee sat down on the bed while Molly straddled his hips. Lee kissed her back deeply but suddenly pulled back from her, he felt a nagging, a silent whisper in his head telling him to stop. "What?" Molly asked confused,

"I...I can't do this. I'm sorry." Lee said sitting up and moving Molly off of him,

"Why? What's wrong Lee?" Molly asked with a drop in her voice,

Lee stared at her for moment then got to his feet, "Come on, let's head back to the car." He said diverting his eyes from Molly's. Molly watched as he walked back to the door and stepped back out onto the street. She couldn't understand what she did wrong, clearly he was interested in her as much as she was in him. She let out an exhale and rubbed her face slowly before pulling herself to her feet.

Molly walked out of the RV and shut the door hanging her head a bit. She looked around and saw that Lee was already up the street, she narrowed her eyes and ran to catch up to him, "What the fuck, you couldn't wait for me?" She said angrily to him,

Lee looked over to her with a minor confused look, "Huh? Oh, sorry. Didn't realize." He said dryly as he continued to walk up the street.

Minutes past as they walked in silence and Molly finally let out a sigh and said, "So we just gonna let this hang over us awkwardly or are we gonna talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Lee asked back,

"About us, or you. Everything seemed to be going alright until you suddenly stopped. So what was the problem?" Molly asked confused as well as curious,

Lee let out a sigh that turned into a groan, "I just can't right now, alright?" Lee said firmly,

"But why? Was it me? Come on Lee, what's wrong?" Molly asked growing irritated,

"It's not you." Lee said quickly then he rubbed his eyes, "Can we just drop this? I don't feel like talking about this." Lee said a bit forcefully, in honesty Lee himself didn't know exactly why he stopped. Nothing about kissing Molly felt wrong but the thought of taking things further, it felt like a bad idea but he could figure out why.

"Fine, whatever." Molly said with a bit of a scoff. Lee looked back to her and saw that her brow was narrowed and her jaw was locked. He felt like shit for making her feel angry or that she fucked things up. After an awkward ten minute walk in which they stayed in silence, they reached the station wagon. They were surprised to see Kenny and Sarita already back.

"Hey ya'll, how'd it go for you two?" Kenny said with a smile as he continued to pack the supplies he and Sarita found into the trunk,

Kenny's eyes narrowed in confusion as he noticed Molly and Lee were both keeping their distance from one another. Molly caught on to Kenny's look and quickly stopped him from putting anything together, "Yeah we found an RV that's running, low on fuel though."

"No shit?" Kenny said in disbelief,

"Yeah." Lee mumbled out and tossed the keys over to him,

"That amazing." Sarita said with a wide smile,

"So gramps how did your guys search go?" Molly asked with a smirk,

"I'd wish you'd stop calling me that." Kenny said as he closed the trunk,

Sarita let out a little laugh, "We did very well actually, we found a lot of food."

"Yeah, turns out those houses weren't picked clean." Kenny said with a nod as he headed over to the driver's door, "Come on let's get to this RV of yours."

Lee got into the front seat and quietly sat there while everyone else got inside as well. As Molly directed him to the RV Kenny was constantly peering over to Lee who looked at though he was in a completely other world. Kenny pulled into the parking lot and let out a smile at the large RV that sat waiting for them, "Well shit, that's a hell of a lot better than our old one, huh pal?" Kenny said with a grin to Lee,

Lee blinked out of his small trance and looked over to him, "What? Oh, yeah completely." He said halfheartedly,

Kenny raised an eyebrow before stopping the car, something was going on and he wanted to figure it out. They four of them got out of the car and Kenny turned to Sarita, "Hey would you mind taking all the supplies from the car and put them into the RV, Molly could ya help?" Kenny asked looking over to them,

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Molly said with a roll of her eyes. Sarita in turn gave him a small nod,

"Lee let's go get some gas for this thing." Kenny said as he grabbed the gas can and siphon tube from the trunk. Lee let out a nod and the two men started walking to the nearest car in the parking lot. As soon as they were out of earshot Kenny turned to Lee, "Alright, spill it man. What's going on?"

Lee was taken aback, "What are you talking about?" He asked weakly,

"Come on man, two hours ago you and Molly were fine now you won't even look at each other." Kenny said crossing his arms,

"She kissed me." Lee said blankly to Kenny's surprise,

Kenny ran his hand across his chin, "Well, uh, is that good or bad?" He asked a bit awkwardly,

"I don't know man." Lee said with a slow shrug, "It didn't feel wrong but I don't know if I should. What's the point right?"

"What'd ya mean, what's the point?" Kenny asked confused,

"Everyone person I've cared about has either died or disappeared," Lee said shaking his head, "You know Carly, she kissed me the day she died."

Kenny lowered his head, "Shit man, I didn't know ya'll were getting that close."

Lee rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah and in an instant she was gone. So why should I even try again, Molly...she's great but she could just die."

Kenny paused for a minute then looked over to him, "You know Lee when I lost my family I thought that same thing. But Sarita told me that everyone is gonna die someday and it's important to enjoy each day because it could be your last." Kenny let out a smirk and shook his head, "For awhile I thought it was horseshit but it's true, and it's helped me out. So maybe you should, I don't know, go for it. If you and Molly like each other what's the point of ignoring it."

Lee paused and turned his attention to a nearby car, "Come on let's get this gas and get a move on." Kenny let out a short sigh and nodded hoping that he helped his friend out. Lee in honesty did have some more things to think about thanks to Kenny.

Meanwhile Molly and Sarita were having their own conversation on the matter. As soon as they got the bags of supplies from the car into the RV and started putting them into the cabinets Molly turned to Sarita and said, "So is every guy an idiot or am I just having bad luck?"

"Excuse me?" Sarita said surprised at the question,

Molly let out a scoff, "It's Lee, he says he likes me but doesn't want to be with me. Does that make any sense to you?" She said turning to her with an annoyed look,

"Well yes actually, it makes quite a lot of sense." Sarita replied with a nod,

Molly raised her eyebrows at her response, "Oh really? And please explain it to me."

"Well, if Lee cares for you but doesn't want to move forward he is most likely afraid." Sarita said with a small smile,

"Afraid? Afraid of what?" Molly said turning to face her now interested,

"Hmmm, if I had to guess it would be of losing you. From what Kenny tells me, he's been surrounded by loss for awhile." Sarita said thoughtfully before picking up some cans and putting them away,

Molly hung her head for a moment before looking back at her, "Great so now I'm the idiot right?" She said annoyed at herself as she crossed her arms,

"I don't think that, if anything it's sweet that you care enough to ask." Sarita said with a warm smile, "Also, I seem to remember you telling me that nothing was going on between you two."

Molly blushed ever so slightly and let out a breathy laugh, "Well it wasn't, not until today. I guess you were right after all, what do you want me to say?"

Sarita let out a laugh, "You don't have to say anything." Sarita picked up another can and put it into the cabinet, "You know it's extremely lucky for us to find this RV, I think it bodes well for our journey."

"Yeah well it's still a long journey to be had so let's hope we didn't use it all up at once." Molly said shaking her head as she too started to get back to work. Twenty minutes later as Molly was taking a break and Sarita was cleaning up the bathroom with what she could Lee and Kenny returned to the RV.

"Alright loaded up, we got a full tank." Kenny said with a smile,

"Yeah but I think we should wait out the night before we get moving." Lee said leaning up against the wall, "To be honest I don't think we should be traveling at night at all, easy for someone to spot us in this thing."

"I don't know man, if we're only driving in the day it's gonna take us forever to get up to Wellington." Kenny said dismissively,

Molly quickly spoke up, "We should listen to Lee, we're lucky to have this thing and all this food but if we're not careful it could just get taken by some assholes."

Sarita let out a small nod, "I can agree with going with the side of caution."

Kenny let out a grumble and nodded, "Alright fine, we'll hunker down at night." Kenny turned to Lee, "Guess I'll take first watch."

Sarita peered over to Molly and with a small smirk stood up, "Here, I'll head out with you." Kenny let out a warm smile and the two walked out of the RV leaving Lee and Molly alone.

Lee stood there awkwardly for a few minutes before heading towards the back, "Think I'll catch some sleep while I can." He said quietly as he walked past her,

"Yeah, okay." She said with a small nod, "No Lee wait." She said getting to her feet. Lee turned back to her, "Listen I just wanted to say sorry."

"For what?" Lee said confused,

"Well I kinda sprung all that stuff on you earlier and then made it awkward afterwards." She said rubbing the back of her neck, "I'll be honest I kind of don't know how to do this anymore, interact with people that is."

Lee raised an eyebrow, "What are you talking about Molly?"

"Lee, after Crawford I was alone for a long time. I hadn't even talked to anyone until your group, and that wasn't even until a few months past." Molly said lowering her head a bit embarrassed, "So do you want to maybe just forget that happened."

Lee looked at her for a moment causing her to get worried. Then he let out a smile, "Listen Molly, I don't want to forget it. It felt right…" Lee said holding her gaze,

Molly stared at him for a minute and Lee looked at her longingly before they both at once grabbed onto each other. They pressed their lips together once more holding each other in an embrace. They slowly pulled back after a minute and let out an exhale, "Okay. I'll admit it, it did feel right for me too." Molly said as she slowly pulled back from him,

Lee grinned at her and spoke softly, "I care about you Molly, I just need to take some time, get my head straight."

"Alright I think I can deal with that." Molly said with a smirk. Lee smiled at her again before turning back and laying down on the lower bunk and quickly falling asleep.

 **Okay so a bit of a relationship building chapter, hope you didn't mind the slow pace. Next chapter will be a time jump as the journey up to Wellington would be mostly boring, so we will be getting closer to season 2 quicker than you may expect, in honesty it's already been a month since the first chapter. Alright, anyway, leave me a review it keeps me motivated to write the story and I have to say that I am so surprised in the amount of follows and favorites this story already has, so thank you!**


	7. Welcome To Ohio

smeake

Good chapter, can't wait for the next one

 **Thanks, glad you liked it.**

Worker72

The possibility are endless here but Lee will never jump into another relationship very quickly after what happened between him the Senator and his ex-wife. In his position Lee's mind will probably always associate sex with killing a State Senator.

 **Lee has been thinking non stop about everything that has gone wrong in his life from his wife, to Carly and to the Stranger. So at the moment Lee associates any relationship with loss and can't imagine anything truly coming out of being with Molly, but at the same time he knows he wants to be with her.**

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 **Enjoy**

 **One year later…**

A walker shuffled through the woods groaning as it searched for it's next meal, suddenly an arrow pierced it's eye and it fell to the ground with a thud. Molly let out a little laugh and smiled widely, "Gottem." She said as she put her bow on her back. Over the year since the group had found the RV she had picked up the skill of archery and finally in the last few months it really started to come together,

"You're really getting good with that thing." Lee said with a smirk from right next to her. Molly let out a little laugh and turned back to him. Lee ran his eyes along her body, the months of travel had shown on her. Most notably Molly had let her hair grow out to the point that she now had to keep it tied up in a ponytail.

"Yeah well, I've had this thing for six months now. About time I started getting this shit down." Molly said as she motioned to the bow. Molly leaned forward and planted a small kiss on his lips before quickly backing away,

Lee raised an eyebrow in confusion, "What?"

"Your beard." Molly said with a little laugh, "It was fine when it was short but you're getting to be like Kenny."

Lee let out a short chuckle and ran his hand through his now bushy beard, "Yeah well I'm not a fan of the thing either. When we get to Wellington I'll shave this thing straight off."

Molly smirked and started walking over to the walker and quickly pulled out the arrow, "I swear to god if this place doesn't exist I am going to kill Sarita." She said jokingly,

Lee let out a laugh as the two of them started to walk through the forest, "Don't worry, it'll be there." He said after a minute,

"Whoa, that sounds like you actually thinking hopeful for once. What's the occasion?" Molly said with a little nudge,

Lee gave her a little annoyed look, "No occasion, I can feel it. Wellington is out there. Besides, i'm feeling good today." He said with a warm smile,

"Just how good?" Molly asked with a coy smile as she put her arm around him,

Lee clammed up a bit and he let out a sigh. Him and Molly had been in some sort of relationship for awhile now but they hadn't exactly closed the deal. Molly had been lightly pressuring him into finally having sex but Lee couldn't bring himself to move forward. "I, uh, I don't think that good." He stammered out,

Molly let out a little groan, "Oh come on Lee, it's been so long. Don't you think it's time?" She asked stopping him, "Don't you finally want to be with me?" She whispered out before leaning in and kissing him deeply,

Lee slowly pulled back and rested his head against hers, "I do, but timings got to be right."

Molly let out a small defeated sigh, "Fine, I get it." Molly looked up at him and gave him a sarcastic look, "I fucking wish we'd just do it but I think i'm starting to enjoy the anticipation."

Lee let out a soft chuckle, "Good, now come on. We should get back, Kenny and Sarita are probably waiting."

Molly let out a smirk and nodded, "Yeah last thing we want to do is keep moutain man waiting."

Lee and Molly jogged back through the forest until they reached a small clearing in the trees where their RV was sitting. Outside they spotted Sarita tending a small campfire, she looked up and her eyes lit up seeing them, "You're back," She said standing up and walking over to them, "How did your hunt go?"

Molly let out a grin as Lee took off his backpack and tossed it over to Sarita, "I know a few rabbits who aren't making it home tonight."

"Excellent, I'll start preparing them for dinner." Sarita said eagerly,

"Here let me help you." Molly said and ran over catching up to her,

Lee watched the two women walk back to the RV and head inside. He headed over to the fire and crouched down next to it before tossing another log onto it. He reached his hands out and warmed them, "'bout to hit winter again." Kenny suddenly said from behind him,

Lee jumped at the sound before turning back, "Jesus man, don't sneak up on me like that." Lee said standing back up and walking over to him,

"Sorry." Kenny said with a smirk,

"So, how'd it go? You find gas?" Lee asked with a hopeful tone,

Kenny's eyes narrowed and he tossed an empty gas can to the ground, "Hell no," He lifted his hat off his head and scratched it irritated, "Think our luck has run out, I must've checked thirty cars and all of them empty."

Lee's jaw locked and he let out a groan before he started to pace, "Well what the fuck Kenny? We are out of gas completely, we're lucky that we made it off the road before the thing stopped." Lee said motioning to the RV,

"I know but were fucked man, we'll have to just push on without it." Kenny said with a shrug, "We can't stop now, we're getting close."

"Push on without it? You mean we start hiking, in the winter?" Lee asked as he threw his hands up in disbelief,

"I know it ain't gonna be easy but we aren't stopping." Kenny said firmly, "So get your shit together we're leaving in the morning."

Lee let out an annoyed groan before heading back into the RV. Inside Sarita and Molly had just finished cleaning one rabbit and they were about to ask Lee to start it's cooking but stopped as they saw his face. He pushed past them and headed to the back of the RV, Molly watched him for a minute then turned back to Sarita, "Here you get this thing cooking, I'll talk to him." She said as she wiped her hands off with a rag,

Sarita let out a nod and started walking out of the RV while Molly walked over to Lee. She was surprised to see him loading items into a travel bag, "What are you doing?" Molly asked sitting down on the bed behind him,

"Packing." Lee said dryly as he packed his few sets of clothes into the bottom of the bag,

Molly rolled her eyes at the one word answer, "Why?"

"Were on foot tomorrow, Kenny couldn't find gas." Lee spat out before he turned back to her, "Out of all times for this to happen it has to be at the start of winter, we could freeze to death for god sakes."

Molly lowered her head into her hands now also pissed off, unlike Lee however she was already getting over it. She took a deep breath and stood up placing her hands lightly on his shoulders, "Don't worry, we'll get through this, just like we always do." She let out a small smile, "And come on can you honestly tell me that you're gonna miss this hunk of shit. I mean it must have broken down a dozen times since we got it."

Lee leaned back and let out a smirk before laughing, "Remember when Kenny got us lost in Tennessee for a week then as soon as we got back on track the radiator hose gave out."

"Oh trust me I remember, that when you lost your meat cleaver." Molly said with a giggle, "You threw that thing so far up the highway."

Lee rubbed his face embarrassed before laughing, "Yeah, well." He said giving her a shrug,

Molly kissed the top of his head before giving a pat on his shoulders, "So just stay calm, we'll be just fine."

Lee looked back at her with a smile, "Right, sorry about that. Still gotta work on that, staying calm." He said with a small shake of his head,

"Don't worry about it, you're kinda hot when you're mad." She replied with a grin,

"Stop." Lee said with a little laugh as he began to pack his bag once again, though this time a lot calmer. Molly crouched down next to him and started to pack her own bag, while she did she was hoping that she wasn't wrong about them being find without the RV.

Outside the RV, Kenny was breaking the news to Sarita, "Hun, I gotta talk to you for a minute."

"What's wrong?" Sarita asked concerned, "I noticed Lee was very upset."

Kenny nodded, "Yeah, he's got good reason. We're on foot as of tomorrow." He said a bit hardly,

"Why?' Sarita asked wide eyed,

"Couldn't find no fuel, and we ain't stopping here. Figure were almost out of Kentucky and without having to stop to backtrack or fix this piece of shit we'll be at Wellington in a month or two." Kenny explained then his eyes went soft, "Don't worry, ain't nothing gonna happen to us."

Sarita looked at him and let out a smile before walking over and hugging him, "I believe you, I know you know what you're doing." Kenny held her in a tight embrace before they finally shared a deep kiss,

"Whoa need a minute out here?" Molly exclaimed as she and Lee both walked out with the second rabbit,

Kenny quickly pulled back and let out an annoyed frown, "Hey we don't bother you two." Sarita said with a small laugh,

"Well we're packed." Lee said sitting down next to the fire as Molly put the second rabbit on, "Come on, let's eat." Kenny and Sarita both were surprised to see just how calm Lee was, most every time Lee got bad news it would ruin the rest of the day for him. They quickly walked over and sat down next to the fire and waited for the rabbit to cook while making small talk.

The four of them had a decently filling meal before heading back to the RV for their last night. Oddly they all had one of the most restful nights ever since they had found the RV and woke up completely rested early the next morning. Kenny made a final pass through the RV for any missed supplies before they headed out.

They walked along the highways for a few weeks before they finally got a decent sign. A few hours into their fifteenth day of walking Lee tripped over something on the ground. "Ah, shit." He grumbled out as he slowly got to his feet,

"You alright?" Kenny asked turning back to him,

"Yeah, just got my foot caught on something." Lee replied as Molly helped him up,

Molly let out a grin, "Good thing you did." She said staring at the ground,

"How is me falling a good thing?" Lee asked with a scoff as he dusted himself off,

"Because you found out where we are." Molly said with a grin as she picked up a small green sign that read out, 'Welcome to Ohio'

 **Alright so this was a pretty big jump in time but the only thing the four of them did was travel. Now some might be a bit confused to why it took a year for them to get to Ohio in a RV and honestly it was their own bad luck. Roadblocks, getting lost and breaking down help them up a few months at the least overall. Anyway I hope you liked this chapter and I look forward to reading some reviews.**


	8. Friendly Faces

Guest

For some reason I can't help but think that the minute Clementine sees Lee she's gonna faint!

 **You never know, I will say it's going to be extremely emotional for them both.**

Guest

I just started reading your story and I read all the chapters at once. I like it so far I can't wait to see when and how Lee is going to reunite with Clem. I'm not sure what you have planned but I'm sure both Lee and Clem will be crying their eyes out.

 **Glad you are enjoying the story and no worries you'll see their reunion in a few chapters actually!**

Smeake

Good chapter, can't wait for the next one

 **Thanks bud, hope you like this one.**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

Nearly another two months past as the group scouted around Ohio trying to find Wellington. They had searched nearly all of south Ohio and finally figured that Wellington must be located on the north part of Ohio. As they continued to hike through the woods they spotted some train tracks and decided to follow them to see where they lead, hoping to find a small town to gather some supplies and even some winter clothes.

After two days of following the train tracks the group came to a screeching halt when they found what they had to cross, a giant red bridge over a river. "Fuck." Lee grumbled out as he looked at the bridge, "If anyone sees us we're gonna be sitting ducks."

"No way around it, gonna have to cross." Kenny replied looking the the bridge while crossing his arms,

"Molly, could you get us an eye? See if anything is on the other side?" Lee said turning to her.

Molly let out a quick nod and ran over to a tree and started to quickly pull herself up it. Lee grimaced slightly, worried that she could fall but Molly handled the climb with ease and got to the top within a minute. She pulled out a pair of binoculars and started to scan across the bridge for anything of note, her eyes rested on a very small station house. "Hey! I think I see a place we can hold up in for the night!"

Sarita looked over to Kenny and smiled happy knowing they weren't spending yet another night outside, "Anything else?!" Lee called back to her,

Molly looked around again and started to spot a ski lift that lead up the mountain which held an extremely large ski lodge, "Yeah! Top of the mountain has a huge building, ski lodge I think!" She called back causing Lee to look to the top of the mountain, yet all he could see was the very tip of a spinning wind turbine,

"That All?" Kenny called out to her,

Molly rolled her eyes, "Oh yeah and a huge buffet with a cure to this thing! Did I forget to mention that?!" She said with a sarcastic grin before tucking the binoculars away,

"Smart ass." Kenny grumbled out before turning back to the bridge, "What do ya think? We could work our way around, could cost us a few days."

Suddenly the group heard a bunch of twigs snapping and the deep groans of the dead, "Oh no." Sarita whispered out wide eyed as the three of them turned back to see dozens of walkers shuffling towards them,

"I don't think we can work around anymore." Kenny said taking Sarita's hand and slowly backing up,

"Yeah…" Lee replied as he instinctively reached for his pistol pulling it out. The walker closet to them let out a loud roar before lumbering after them followed by the others. "Run!" Lee shouted as he took a shot hitting a walker in the head. Kenny and Sarita took off towards the bridge while Lee held his ground waiting for Molly, "Molly we gotta move!"

"Shit, shit, shit." Molly hissed to herself as she started to climb down the tree quickly. Below she could hear taking shots as the dead and her heart started beating widely worried that he would get overrun. Just as she past the halfway point a large crack was heard and the branch Molly was hanging onto snapped sending her to the ground.

Lee turned back to her as he heard a loud scream before she hit the ground with a sickening thud. An audible crack was heard coming from her left leg, "FUCK!" Molly screamed out while clutching her leg in pain,

"Molly!" Lee exclaimed as he tucked his pistol back into his pants and ran over to her,

Molly took a sharp breath through her teeth while looking around seeing the dead closing around them both, "Go, get the fuck out of here Lee."

"Shut up!" Lee shot out to her while roughly grabbing her arm and pulling her off the ground over his shoulder.

Kenny and Sarita both stopped at the bridge when they noticed Lee and Molly weren't with them. They looked around fearfully until Sarita spotted Lee doing his best to run to the bridge, " There!" She exclaimed as she pointed over to them,

"Ah shit!" Kenny said as he pulled his rifle off his shoulder and aiming it up, "Lee! Come on, move!" He shouted to him while taking a shot hitting a walker that was closing in on them. Sarita pulled out her pistol and took a few careful shots hitting walkers that were closing in on the bridge,

Just as Lee was about to reach the bridge he tripped to the ground dropping Molly making her let out another yell of pain. Lee rolled over onto his back and pulled out his pistol once again taking shots at the dead, "Lee just go! You can't save me!" Molly yelled out to him furiously,

"Fuck that, I'd die first!" Lee shouted back as Molly too started taking shots with her gun. Lee continued to pull his trigger before hearing a click from his gun. A walker jumped onto him, however Lee was able to force his foot on its chest keeping it away from his face. The walkers jaws snapped and a black ooze dripped out of its mouth onto Lee's shirt.

Just then a gunshot ran out and hit the walker dead in the skull. Lee quickly kicked the body off of him while Kenny and Sarita turned back confused from the shot. A young asian man stood holding a semi automatic rifle, "Go get your friends quick!" He exclaimed as he took another shot hitting more walkers easily,

Kenny without waiting took off running over to the pair, Lee got to his feet and saw Kenny running over to them, "Get Molly!" He commanded while sliding out his spent clip and slipping in a new one,

Kenny slipped his rifle over his shoulder and took hold of Molly picking her up quickly. The two men quickly ran back to the bridge while the man and Sarita provided cover fire. As they got onto the bridge the man lowered his rifle, "Great you made, come on let's get a move on!"

"Who the hell are you?" Molly asked quickly,

"Let's save introductions for later." The man replied as he turned around leading the group across the bridge quickly, "Stay off the tracks, woods rotten. Could break and you'd fall right into the river." He said quickly while they continued to sprint across the bridge,

"Sorry to bring this up but running will only work so long, these things don't tire." Kenny said through some deep huffs,

"Don't worry, we just need to get into the station house." The man replied as they got to the other side of the bridge. He quickly swung open the door of the house and slammed it shut, "Blinds close them quick." The man commanded as he pointed to the windows. While Kenny carefully laid Molly down on a cot Lee and Sarita quickly closed the blinds blocking any sight into the building, "Now quiet." The man whispered out as he crouched down.

Everyone slowly knelt down and went extremely silent waiting to see if it would work. After a few minutes they heard the growling of the walkers as they reached the building, "Is this going to work?" Sarita whispered out,

"Ssh." Lee said slowly as he raised a finger to his lips. They continued to hear walkers shuffle past the building for the next few minutes, finally they sound stopped and not a single walker stopped at the building.

The man slowly walked over to a window and carefully pulled back the curtain looking outside, "Don't worry, they're passing. We should stay here for the night though." He said with a small smile and sat down on the ground,

Everyone let out a sigh of relief, Lee quickly moved over to Molly and took her hand into his. Kenny on the other hand turned his attention to the man, "And who the fuck might you be anyway?"

"Names Matthew, looked like you guys needed some help." He said with a small smirk,

"Thank you, you probably saved all our lives." Sarita said sincerely,

"No problem, am happy to help." Matthew replied as he pulled his hood down off his head, "Besides it's been awhile since I've seen new people, must have been a few weeks at the least."

Kenny raised his eyebrow suspiciously, "What happened to these other people?"

"Moved on," He said with a small shrug, "Happens all the time, every group I run by moves on within a few days. All of them have a new story or idea, but it's nice to have the company while it lasts."

"Why don't you go with them?" Molly asked looking over to the man,

"No reason to, I like where I am just fine." Matthew replied wholeheartedly,

"You like living here alone? In a station house?" Lee said in disbelief,

"Oh no, I don't live here. Me and Walter live up at the ski lodge." Matthew replied as he moved over to a trunk and pulled out a few cans of peaches, "Hey you all look pretty hungry, here take these. I got plenty."

Sarita took the cans a bit confused while Lee and Kenny looked at each other, "Uh, who the fuck is this Walter guy?"

Matthew let out a little chuckle, "Right, sorry. Walter is my partner, we live up at the lodge. I come down here some days to scavenge around. Lucky for you folks I came down today." He took a second looking around at their faces before smiling again, "You know if you want to you could come up to the lodge tomorrow, Walter loves meeting now people and we could make you a hot meal. Perks of having power."

"You have power?" Lee asked taken aback,

"Yeah the ski lodge runs off a wind turbine, it was trying to go green before the fall, lucky for us. Early on me and Walter found a big food truck stacked with cans of peaches and cans so we have more than enough to share." Matthew explained as he leaned back against the wall letting out a relieved sigh,

"Sounds good...what's the catch though?" Kenny asked suspiciously,

"No catch, just nice to have some friendly people around." He said let they all heard Molly let out a guttural groan of pain as Lee lightly put his hand on her leg, "What's wrong?" He asked fully concerned,

"She fell out a tree," Lee replied then looked back to Molly, "How bad is it?"

"Scale of one to ten, got to be a fucking forty." She said while gritting her teeth, "It's definitely broke." She said as Matthew got up and walked over,

"What are you doing?" Lee asked defensively,

"Relax, I used to be a volunteer EMT. I just want to check and see how bad it is, if that's alright?" He said looking at Molly, she stared at him for a moment before nodding quickly, "Alright just take a deep breath, I'll be a gentle as possible." He said as he rolled up her pant leg. Molly let out a few small whimpers and groans as he inspected her leg, "Well I don't think it's broke actually, maybe cracked."

"Great." Molly said taking a deep breath, "Still hurts like a bitch though."

"I bet." Matthew said with a smirk, "Don't worry though, you can rest up at the ski lodge for as long as you need."

Kenny peered over to Sarita and narrowed his eyes a bit, "Don't know if we're gonna be sticking around too long, we're heading up to Wellington."

"Oh Wellington." Matthew said with a roll of his eyes, "I always keep hearing that name."

"Do you know where is it?" Sarita asked quickly,

"Nope, but I hear that from almost every other group that passes through here." Matthew replied, "If the place doesn't exist the amount of people looking for it could totally build it from scratch." He said with a laugh as he propped up Molly's leg, "Why don't we get some rest, we'll head out first thing in the morning."

Kenny looked over to Lee who let out a slow nod, "Yeah you all catch some sleep, I'll just stay up for awhile, make sure we don't have any surprises."

"Cool, sounds like a plan." Matthew said laying down resting his head on his backpack.

The group had a rotating shift each taking watch for walkers as well as a trap that Matthew may have been trying to spring but to their surprise everything went exactly as Matthew said, they slept and woke up the next morning ready to get a move on. "Now it's a bit of a walk, but you just tell me if we need to stop. It's no rush." He said looking over to Molly,

Molly let out a little grin as she got to her feet slightly raising her left leg, "Don't worry Lee here will carry me, right?"

Lee let out a little chuckle, "Up a mountain, I don't know about that." He said playfully,

"Alright enough sapp, come on let's get to this ski lodge." Kenny said firmly as he opened the door slowly. Molly put an arm around Lee's neck and the two slowly walked out the door followed back Sarita and Matthew.

"Alright follow me." Matthew said as he closed the door to the station and locked it before running to the front of the group. It took the group nearly four hours to hike up the mountain, stopping several times to let Molly and Lee rest. Finally they let out a deep sigh of relief as they reached the steps of the lodge, "God he's gonna be so pissed at me for staying out all night." Matthew mumbled to himself as they reached the door.

Suddenly a older man burst through the door almost in tears. Kenny instinctively reached for his gun but stopped as he saw his run over to Matthew pulling him into a hug then a kiss, "I thought you got into trouble, I was so worried."

"I know I'm sorry, We had to hold up in the station house for the night." Matthew explained with a smile before turning back around, "Walter this is….shit, I never did ask for your names."

Sarita let out a small laugh, "It's alright, I'm Sarita. I'm assuming you must be Walter?"

Walter let out a warm smile and held out his hand to shake her's, "That's right, pleased to meet you." Walter looked over to Kenny, "And who are you?"

"Name's Kenny." Kenny said as he gave him a firm handshake,

"Firm grip you have there." Walter said with a smirk then looked just behind them, "Hello, who are you two?"

"Lee." Lee replied with a little huff as he helped support Molly,

"Molly, sorry but could I please come in and sit down." She said with a small pleading in her voice,

"Are you alright?" Walter asked worried,

"Shit, sorry. She cracked a bone in her leg yesterday." Matthew said quickly,

"Oh well please come in." Walter said quickly, "I think we might have some aspirin around her somewhere, won't do much but it will help a bit."

"I'll take whatever you got, might need twenty though." Molly said with a little smirk,

Walter let out a soft chuckle, "Sense of humor, always good to see. Now please follow me," He said leading them back to the door and opening the door to the lodge.

 **Okay so here we are closing in on season 2. I also hope you enjoyed how I created Matthew character, due to his quick death in canon. I will say both him and Walter were amazing people, though a bit foolish with their charity. Anyway let me know what you think and I'll see you in the next one.**


	9. Ski Lodge

Worker72

I suppose we might get one or two chapters to develop the Lee/Molly romance before season 2 starts and all the death starts again.

 **Yeah we all know how much death happens in season two, in fact it's a bit over the top but with Lee involved it may change.**

Guest

Nice can't wait for your next update

 **Thanks, glad you liked it.**

smeake

Good chapter, can't wait for the next one

 **Thanks as always.**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

Walter and Matthew lead the group up a small staircase and into a large open lodge. Everyone peered around, it felt so surreal to see how untouched the place seemed. To their right sat a large den area with a roaring fire sitting in an extremely large chimney which heated the whole lodge. Ahead of them sat a cooking area with a large sign above it that read Canteen. And to the left of that sat a decently large dining area, "Well holy shit." Kenny said with a grin looking around,

"Yes it's quite impressive." Walter said resting his hands on his hips, "We have enough power to run the whole place, though we like to keep the lights off at night to avoid attention."

"Hey, leg still fucked up here." Molly quickly pipped in,

Walter's face dropped in concern, "I'm sorry, her come take a seat in the den." He said letting Lee and Molly pass. Lee carefully helped Molly sit down on the couch, "Matthew could you go and check our room for any type of painkillers, I swear I saw some aspirin." Matthew gave a quick nod and ran over to the stairs and started heading up to the second floor. "So what happened?" He asked turning back to Molly,

"Fell out of a tree." Molly said wincing slightly as she propped her leg up,

Walter let out a small laugh, "And what were you doing in a tree?"

"Enjoying the sights." Molly said with a smirk causing Walter to laugh. Just then they heard Matthew coming back down the stairs,

"Hey I actually found some real painkillers, only have a few though so I brought the aspirin just in case." Matthew said handing them to Molly,

"Thank you." Molly said,

"Yeah, we appreciate it." Lee said with a nod,

"Of course." Walter said with a nod, "Now why don't you folks all sit down and relax. You can give your things to Matthew."

Kenny's eyes narrowed at that thought, "Think I'm gonna keep my gun."

"Yeah I don't know about that." Lee replied with a nod,

"Gentlemen please, I swear no harm will come to you. You are safe here." Walter said easily, "Matthew put your weapons away, none of us need them as of now." Matthew let out a smile and took out a knife and took his rifle off of his shoulder and placed them on a table, "See, we only want you to feel safe and comfortable. Can't do that with a gun jammed into your back." Walter said with a warm smile,

The four of them stared at Walter and for a few minutes no one made a move. Finally Sarita broke the tension by pulling out her pistol. "What are you doing hun?" Kenny asked wide eyed as well as a bit angry,

"I'm putting my weapons down. These men have done nothing but help us, I think that's earned them some trust." Sarita said firmly as she put down her pistol,

Lee let out a deep sigh before pulling out his pistol and placing it on the table, "Come on Ken, put it down."

"Lee you can't be serious, we don't know these guys." Kenny hissed back,

"Kenny." Lee said with a hard glare. Kenny looked back at him locking eyes for a moment before Kenny closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He walked over to the table and put down his rifle. Molly handed Lee her gun and he quickly put it down as well,

"Thank you all for your trust and understanding." Walter said warmly, "Matthew can show you to the spare rooms and I will start dinner. Hope you like beans and peaches."

"Game's been scarce out there, we haven't had a good meal in days. Beans and peaches sounds amazing." Molly said as Lee carefully helped her up,

Walter gave them all a concerned look, "Well I'll make extra tonight, make sure you all have a filling meal." He said sincerely,

"Thank you Walter." Sarita said warmly as the four of them followed Matthew up the stairs to the spare rooms.

Over the next thirty minutes the group settled into their rooms. Sarita and Kenny didn't stay in their room very long, Sarita insisted on helping Walter with dinner and Kenny didn't mind keeping an eye on the two of them. Lee and Molly on the other hand did stay in their room, with Molly's leg holding her back Lee refused to leave her alone. This gave him a chance to talk to her about what happened, "Why did you tell me to leave you." Lee finally asked softly,

"Huh?" Molly asked looking over at him,

"Twice, two fucking times you told me to leave you behind." Lee said coldly, "Why would you tell me to do that?"

Molly looked at him confused and gave him a little half laugh, "Maybe because I didn't want you to die?"

Lee stood up and angrily ran his hand through his hair, "This is fucking serious Molly." He shot out causing Molly's face to lose her smirk, "What gives you the right to tell me that? What did you think I couldn't save you?"

Molly looked at him sympathetically for a moment before letting out a sigh, "I'm sorry." She said sitting up, "I just didn't want you to die, we were surrounded out there and all I could think is you dieing." She said with a small quiver in her voice,

Lee felt a pain in his chest and he walked over sitting down on the bed next to her wrapping his arm around her. Molly let out a shaky breath as she let her head rest on his chest, "I didn't mean to snap at you, you just scared the hell outta me." Lee said rubbing his arm up and down along her arm,

Molly slowly wrapped her arms around his chest. She looked up at him and let out a small smile, "I love you, you know that right?"

"Of course," Lee said quickly, "I love you too." Lee added as he leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. Molly started to push back against his lips, kissing deeply and a bit forcefully. Lee slowly pushed her down flat onto the bed and swung his leg over her so he was straddling her. Molly smashed her lips against his roughly while her hands moved to his shirt unbuttoning it quickly. Lee pulled back from her just long enough to pull her shirt off completely.

Molly let out quick breaths while she sat up a bit and took off her jacket tossing it to the side. Lee watched as she took off her white under shirt and tossed it too the floor quickly. Molly looked back to him and saw he was a bit hesitant to push forward. She reached out and took his hand placing it right between her breasts. She looked up at him holding a gaze waiting to see if he could push forward and was relieved when he finally pushed forward and kissed her once again.

Molly ran her hand down to his pants and groped him she fumbled with his belt quickly undoing it. She unzipped his belt and pushed her hand into his pants grabbing onto him. Lee reached down and tugged her pants down slowly as to not hurt her leg. Lee pulled his pants down and slowly pushed into Molly. The room was filled with their husky breath as Lee filled her slowly. Molly had her arms wrapped around his back and kept her face buried in his shoulder while letting out short moans.

The lack of human contact had weighed heavily on both of them and it wasn't ten minutes before Lee let out a deep groan and finished. Molly let out short deep breaths while Lee let his body fall on top of her. "Finally happened." Molly said softly as she ran her fingers through his hair,

"Yeah." Lee said taking a deep breath,

"If I'd known all I'd have to do is break my leg I might have done it months ago." Molly said with a little laugh that even caused Lee to laugh weakly. Lee slowly rolled to the side of her and let his arm hang over her, "You okay?" She asked looking over to him,

Lee let out a warm smile, "Better than, I feel great." He replied softly,

Just then a soft knock came on their door, "Hey guys dinner's done, Walt wants us all to eat together." Kenny said through the closed door,

Lee jumped out of the bed grabbing Molly's shirt and tossing it over to her, "Alright, we'll be down in just a minute Kenny." He called back as he pulled his pants up. They both heard his footsteps as he walked away and they let out a sigh, "Thank god." Lee mumbled out,

"At least he knocked." Molly said as she grabbed her bag and pulled out a rag quickly cleaning herself up before pulling her pants up, "Now come on help me up, I'm hungry."

Lee let out a smirk as he handed her, her hoodie which she slipped back on before he took her arm and helped her back downstairs. They headed over to the dining area where the others were already sitting, "Ah, excellent." Walter said with a warm smile as they headed over to the table,

Matthew walked over and placed two bowls in front of them, "Beans and peaches." He said with a smirk, "Enjoy."

"Thank you." Molly said with a nod,

"Seriously guys, thank you. It's incredible to meet people like you out here." Lee said sincerely,

"Thank you, it's nice to have nice folks like you around." Walter said with a grin as Matthew sat back down. The group silently began to eat, on the road they never had scheduled meals and if they did end up eating together it was mostly silent. Walter on the other hand was curious about the new arrivals, "So Kenny and Sarita told us about themselves while we were cooking what about you two?" He asked looking at Molly then Lee,

"To be honest I didn't have much going on before all this, I was just starting my life." Molly said with a small shrug, "I just got out of college and returned home when it happened."

"And what did you go to college for?" Walter asked curious Molly turned a bit red and paused, "Oh come on, now i'm really curious."

Molly rolled her eyes and said, "I majored in art, thought I'd work in a museum while I tried to get my work out there."

"That's amazing, art is one of the best things mankind has to offer." Walter said with a nod,

"What type of artist were you?" Matthew asked as he took another bite of beans,

"Painter." Molly said with a small nod, "Guess I'll never know if I was good or not."

Walter let out a little scoff, "Art's subjective, you can't be bad." Molly let out a little laugh not really agreeing with that statement. Walter let out a smile and looked over to Lee, "What about you Lee, what did you do before all this?"

"I was a professor at UGLA." Lee replied with a small smile, "Taught history for six years."

"Really?" Walter said a bit surprised, "And UGLA is…?"

"That's Atlanta, Georgia." Lee replied as he took another bite of food,

"Oh so you're from Atlanta then?" Matthew asked,

"No just worked down there, actually from a smaller town outside of Atlanta. Town called Macon, used to work in a drugstore that my family owned before I got my degree." He said with a bittersweet smile,

"Well that nice." Walter said with a nod,

After a moment of silence Matthew spoke up, "So Lee, I gotta know. That come with a story?" He said pointing to his stump,

Lee lowered his head and rolled his jaw, "Matthew." Walter said a bit annoyed, "That's a bit rude to ask. Lee I'm very sorry about that."

"It's alright," Lee said with a drop in his voice, "It does have a story." Over the next thirty minutes Lee explained the story of how he met Clementine and did his best to keep her safe before losing her in Savannah along with his arm. Lee made sure to keep an information about Kenny's events separate as to not bring up his old wounds. By the end of his tale both Matthew and Walter were in shock as well as sadness,

"That's terrible Lee, I'm so sorry." Walter said sincerely. Lee let out a small nod as the group all felt the lingering sadness in the air. After a moment Walter slowly got to his feet picking up his bowl, "Please I want you all to get a good night's rest. Matthew and I will take care of the mess."

"Are you sure?" Sarita asked as she standed up,

"Yes I insist, you folks deserve a rest." Walter said with a nod and a smile. The four of them gave Matthew and Walter their thanks before heading back upstairs and heading to bed. After the day they had combined with the overall fatigue of travel they all passed out the minute they hit their pillows. As Lee slowly drifted off to sleep he was no unsure if going to Wellington was worth it, they needed some place safe and able to grow in and the ski lodge was it.

 **Alright I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I also had to upgrade the rating to M because I felt that I should go into a bit more detail when it came to Molly and Lee finally being together. Anyway let me know what you thought of this chapter and in the next one we have one more small time jump coming then we're in season two territory and you all know what that means!**


	10. The Bridge

Guest

Great chapter can't wait for the next one. Excited to see how you're going to write season 2.

 **Thanks, I have a decent plan for season two and what twists are going to happen. The impact of Lee, or this more tougher Lee is going to be quite eventful.**

smeake

Can't wait for the next one, can't wait to see Clem reunite with Lee

 **Coming up very soon, I am so ready to have them back together. I mean it's been over a year for them both.**

Worker72

The reason the death scenes were so over the top in season 2 was b/c telltale made everyone but Clem so wimpy. I actually wanted to see everyone get mad and crazy at times. There were times when Bonnie talked about the kindness of strangers that I want to tell her about the 'nice people' who lived on the Dairy Farm offering to feed everyone and then drop the bombshell that the meat they offered were Mark's legs. People like Walter and Matthew needed to be shocked just like that if they were going to survive. I really preferred the evil play through for season 2 since your choices matter the least in that season. Lee and Molly needed to get over that hump sometime. It be unfair to keep Molly waiting for someone forever. Looking forward to Lee and Clem's reunion and hope Lee can keep Kenny from getting to trigger happy when Carver shows up.

 **You know I have to agree, Kenny was the only character who treated the world in the harshness it deserved. That's the problem too, Kenny (While one of my favorite characters) isn't someone who should lead, his emotions run him. So all throughout season two because everyone else was so incompetent he took charge but of course he started to become jaded as he lost Sarita. I mean the whole thing with Arvo, and Kenny being the only one who treated him like the enemy he was really made me pissed off because they wanted us to think Kenny was going crazy but really the rest of the group was so dumb to just give the kid a free pass after he lead a group to rob/kill them.**

Guest 213

When Clem comes back in could you kind of have her be like season 3 Clementine (maybe less swearing tho) but i feel like clementine should have been less of a wimp in season 2 and i want her to be such a badass that everyones like woah she doesn't need help

 **I have a plan for Clem and I am not going to make her into a wimp but I am also going to treat her like a kid, because that's what she is. Yes she's mature and that's due to her loss but in season two the things that she did seemed a bit crazy for an eleven year old.**

ArktosFTW

Man, I found this story only today, but I couldn't keep my eyes off it. You have an amazing ability to reshape the strict, although amazing, story TellTale gave us, and I love it. Keep up the great work, and I hope my boy Matthew doesn't die, but I'm expecting it. Even later on, if/when Carver shows up, I can't wait for one armed Lee to meet one armed Reggie. That'll be hilarious. Anyways, love the work, keep it up!

 **Yeah the impact of Lee into the second season will be pretty big but you'll all see that soon enough. Glad you like it so far and thanks for the review.**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

Two months have past since the group arrived at the lodge, Molly's leg had healed up nicely and for the last week she'd started to get back into practicing her parkour again. Lee and Kenny lead construction detail on covering up the windows. To the constant surprise of the group, the dead rarely showed up around the lodge and if they did it was always in lower numbers.

Not only has the group's life been going well on the walker front, there mental life had been at it's best yet. Lee and Molly as well as Kenny and Sarita had been closer than ever before. Lee had finally been able to calm down, start moving past his losses. On the dawn of the sixty fifth day Matthew spoke up during breakfast, "So I think I'm heading down the mountain today, it's been a few weeks."

"Hopefully you can find some music or good books while you're out." Sarita said with a smile,

"I'll look hard for you Rita." Matthew said with a nod,

"Hey would you mind some company?" Molly asked with a smile,

"Sure, tired of the lodge too?" He said with a little chuckle,

"Nah, this place is great. Though beans and peaches are getting old. Figure I can use today to hunt us some fresh meat." Molly said with a small shake of her head,

"Sounds like a plan to me." Kenny said eagerly, "You make a mean can of beans Walt but I'm starving for something else."

Walt let out a smirk and shook his head. "Sarita would you mind helping me clean up?" He asked standing up,

"Absolutely, you know Walter I was thinking we should set up those Christmas supplies. This place would look beautiful." Sarita said looking around,

"That sounds like a terrific idea." Walter said with a smile as the two of them picked up the bowls and started heading back towards the kitchen. Lee followed Molly up to their room while Kenny headed outside.

"So, heading out hunting...with Matthew." Lee said as he watched Molly grab her gear,

"Jealous?" Molly asked with a little smirk,

"Hardly, just worried." Lee said walking over and taking her hand,

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Molly said warmly and she turned back to him, "You know what you can do for me today?"

"What's that?" Lee asked curious,

"Shave! Please for the love of god shave your beard off. Get it back to your shorter one, like when we met. I'm sick of it scratching me." Molly exclaimed with a wide smile, "Besides I cut your hair just last week, now you need to the beard to match."

"What about you? Are you gonna cut your hair again?" Lee asked moving his hand out and running his hand along her now shoulder length hair,

"Me? Nope, it's kinda grown on me, like your beard has on your face. Get. Rid. Of. It." She said firmly.

"Fine," Lee said running his hand through his beard, "Should have done it awhile ago."

"Good." Molly said pushing in for a short kiss, "Now just relax, I'll see you in a few hours with some fresh food."

Lee felt a small pit form in his stomach as he watched her walk away but he took a slow breath and calmed his nerves remembering how she survived alone for so long in Savannah all the way back when. Lee walked over to his dresser and grabbed a change of clothes and when he peered up he let out a chuckle. He was staring directly in the mirror at himself and could do nothing but shake his head and laugh at the sight. He beard now trumped Kenny's in size and he couldn't take it anymore either.

He headed into the bathroom and dug around the cabinets until he found a buzzer, "Gonna be harder to do this with one hand." He mumbled to himself as he plugged it into the wall socket and heard it immediately start up. It took Lee fifteen careful minutes of buzzing to cut his beard off his face but once he was done it looked almost as if the past year didn't happen. Lee stared into the mirror and let out a small sigh, he looked at his reflection bitterly before turning around and heading back out of the bathroom.

Lee walked down the stairs and headed outside where he could see both Matthew and Molly walking down the mountain. He watched her sadly as she disappeared from view, just then he heard Kenny from behind him, "Well, well. Look who's all cleaned up." He said with a bit of surprise in his voice,

Lee jumped ever so slightly then turned back to him and let out a chuckle, "Yeah, Molly hated the beard. Wasn't too fond of it myself to be honest. What about you, when's yours coming off?" He said pointing to his bushy beard,

"Don't think it's coming off pal, Sarita loves it and with it getting colder out can't help but think it's gonna help me keep warm." Kenny said with a smirk as he turned back around and started walking to the west side of the building. Lee put the thoughts of Molly out of his head and started walking with him, "Took awhile but the front is finally blocked up, same as the east side now all we got is these three windows." He said looking at the large glass windows,

"Yeah, only thing we have going for us up here is the walkers are always thin. If they were this place would have been screwed over a long time ago." Lee said shaking his head,

"Yeah, Walt's a good man but he wasn't too keen on us doing this." Kenny said with a shake of his head,

"Like it or not, this needs to get done." Lee said firmly then he let out a little groan, "We forgot to tell Matthew to gather up some more wood today. We aren't gonna get anywhere with what we have left."

Kenny ran his hand across his jaw and thought for a minute, "You're right, but I think I know what we can get done today."

Lee looked over at him with a raised eyebrow, "What?"

"Sarita really want's this place spruced up. I mean I don't even know if we past Christmas yet or even if we past Thanksgiving but I think we should go grab a tree." Kenny said with a little smile,

"Are you fucking serious?" Lee asked surprised and a bit sarcastically,

"Hell man why not? When was the last time our lives were this good, let's just fucking enjoy this day." Kenny said with a smirk and a shrug,

Lee looked at him confused and let out a little scoff, "Alright, if that what you think we should do. I'll go grab the ax I guess." Lee said turning back around and heading back into the lodge.

While Lee and Kenny worked on finding a suitable 'Christmas' tree for the lodge Matthew and Molly reached the bottom of the mountain by mid day. They split up and each started working on their own things, Matthew searched around looking for any abandoned camps for ammo or good books while Molly got to work on catching some fresh meat. By four they both returned to the station house to start their journey back to the lodge. "So how'd it go for you Molly?" Matthew asked with a hopeful look,

"Few squirrels, and a rabbit. Ain't much but it will spice up meal tonight." Molly said with a little shrug, "I wonder if Lee misses squirrel, used to have it every week but he always prefered rabbit." She said with a smirk,

Just then they heard a shout coming from the bridge, "What the fuck is that?" Matthew asked wide eyed turning back to the bridge,

Molly pulled out her binoculars quickly and peered through them, she immediately spotted a small girl hanging off the side of the bridge with a walker reaching out for her and a man desperately trying to pull himself up from the very bottom of the bridge, "It's a girl and a guy, there getting attacked!"

"Alright come on then! We gotta help them!" Matthew exclaimed pulling out his rifle,

"Wait hold on we don't know anything about these people." Molly said putting the binoculars down, "They could be dangerous."

"Yeah, well you guys could have been and I still helped you. Now let's go already." Matthew said firmly,

Molly let out a deep sigh and pulled out her bow, "Fine let's just get this over with." The pair of them started sprinting down to the bridge and just as they reached the halfway point they saw the man standing protectively next to the small girl with his hand over his gun,

"Stay cool." Matthew whispered to Molly, "Well, who are you!?" Matthew called out sternly which surprised Molly a bit,

"Well who's asking!?" The man called back,

"I am!" Matthew shouted back,

"I'm Clementine and this is Luke!" Clementine shouted back to the pair,

Molly went wide eyed and she looked over to Matthew. Matthew looked back to here a bit confused then realized what she was attesting too. "Clem?!" She immediately called back,

Luke looked down to Clementine, "You know that woman?"

"I-I don't know." Clementine replied squinting into the distance at them. Slowly they started to walk forward and Luke held his hand tightly on his pistol but still didn't pull it out. Just as they got closer Clementine's eyes went wide as she finally saw Molly's face clearly, "Oh my god Molly? Is that you?"

"Clementine, holy shit! It's...you're alive!" She exclaimed shocked as well as thrilled, especially for Lee,

Luke slowly eased his hand off his gun, "You wanna tell me who she is?" He asked looking down to Clem,

"This is Molly, I met her when I was in my last group." Clem replied with a smile while looking at her,

"You need to come with us, right now." Molly said quickly,

"Whoa now, let's hold up." Luke said a bit firmly,

"You don't have to worry." Matthew said relaxing, "We're not assholes, we have food and supplies to share. It's just a hell of a walk up to the lodge."

"The lodge?" Luke asked suspiciously,

"Listen pretty boy, Clementine needs to follow me." Molly said firmly, "Now you can join us and get a hot meal or just sit her on the bridge all night."

Luke frowned at her, "You ain't taking her if she doesn't want to go."

Clementine quickly spoke up, "Molly, I'm sorry but I'm not leaving Luke alone."

"Everyone relax." Matthew said easily, "No one is being forced to do anything. We would just like you to come to dinner at the least. If you want you can come back with us to the station house back there and we can talk it over."

"That's awful nice of you, what's the catch?" Luke asked suspiciously,

"No catch. We have plenty." Matthew said with a smile,

"Well alright, thank you." Luke said letting out a sigh and smiling,

"No problem, and if you want...What the fuck man?!" Matthew exclaimed as he and Molly both saw a man running towards them with a rifle,

"Who the fuck is that?!" Molly shouted out while reaching for her pistol this time,

"No! No! He's With Us! NICK NO!" Luke shouted frantically while waving his arms,

"Don't shoot!" Clem shouted but Luke quickly pulled her down to the ground. A gunshot went off and Luke and Clem looked up only to see Molly laying on top of Matthew. They both looked up at the pair wide eyed, "Are you okay?" She asked quickly.

Just then a second gunshot went off hitting the bridge right next to them. Matthew and Molly frantically crawled to the other side of the bridge, "NICK YOU DUMB ASSHOLE STOP!" Luke shouted out at the top of his lungs,

Nick ran forward towards Luke and Clem and aimed directly at Matthew, "Screw you assholes." He said icily as put his finger on the trigger. Luke quickly jumped at him tackling him to the ground punching him in the face,

"STOP! YOU! STUPID! FUCK!" Luke screamed out slowly making Nick finally hear what he was saying,

Clementine ran over to Matthew and Molly, "Are you hurt?" She asked yet both of them quickly shook their heads no,

"Jesus Christ." Matthew said taking deep breaths, "That your friend?"

"Yeah, my very dumb, very deaf friend." Luke said slowly standing up, "I am so sorry, he's been going through a lot recently."

"You gave me the clear shot, it looked like they were holding you up." Nick said defensively as he got up. Molly quickly walked up to him and gave him a swift kick to the balls sending him back down, "FUCK!" Nick shouted out holding onto his groin,

"Asshole." She spat out turning around,

"You deserved that one man." Luke said stifling back a grin. He quickly looked back to Matthew, "Listen I am telling you that we are good people, actually this isn't even all of us. I promise you that no one else will try something like that. That is if your offer still stands."

Matthew let out a deep breath, "Yes, it still stands. As long as nothing else happens."

"Okay, Nick go get the others. Tell them that these are good people and I swear to god Nick if I so much as see you holding another gun when you come back here." Luke said coldly,

"Yeah, yeah, asshole." Nick grumbled out as he slowly limped back to the other side of the bridge,

After fifteen minutes of awkward waiting Nick returned with the rest of Luke's group which consisted of Carlos, Sarah, Alvin and Rebecca. Matthew greeted them all yet only was met with cautious responses. Matthew made one quick pit stop at the station house grabbing a few items before locking it up and leading them up the mountain. It took them three house to get to the lodge and as soon as they got there they were met with Kenny, Walter and Sarita. Kenny was holding a rifle aimed at them, "Matthew who the hell are these people?" He asked furiously,

"Calm down man, it's okay." Matthew replied holding up his hands,

"Please we can all go inside and talk this through." Walter said trying to defuse any confrontation,

"Fuck that!" Kenny shot back, "Sarita go inside and tell-" Kenny started to say only to stop dead as he saw Clementine push through the crowd, "C-Clementine?" He asked softly while wide eyed,

"Clementine? Like Clementine, Clementine?" Walter asked surprised only to see Clem jump out and hug Kenny tightly. Kenny slowly pulled back and put a hand on her shoulder giving her a warm smile, "I'll take that as a yes."

"Come with me, you need to see something." Kenny said quickly taking her hand and leading her into the lodge,

"Please I can answer any questions you have." Walter said as Molly too pushed past the group and ran into the lodge behind Kenny and Clem.

As they walked up the stairs Kenny looked around and spotted Lee looking out the far window with a gun in his hand. He remained inside watching for anyone else who might have been sneaking around to attack them, "Hey." Kenny called out causing Lee to turn around,

Lee dropped his pistol to the floor as his eyes locked on Clementine whose jaw was dropped and tears were forming in her eyes, "Clementine?" He whispered out,

"Lee?" Clementine squeaked out with a quivering voice.

 **Alright so here we are, we have now entered season two territory and already we have some changes! Matthew surviving longer thanks to Molly's quick reflexes as well as Luke's and next chapter we have Lee and Clementine fully reuniting. So please tell me what you thought of this chapter because I put some thought into how I wanted Clem to meet everyone again. Anyway, I'll talk to you all in the next chapter!**


	11. Reconnecting

ArktosFTW- **Oh my friend if you only knew what I have planned, let's just say that so far this story has just been the calm before the storm, and the storm is indeed coming.**

smeake- **Thanks, Hope you enjoy this one.**

Guest- **Thanks, I have some plans for Molly and Matthew and of course big plans for Lee.**

Worker72- **I have to agree that Pete is definitely what held Luke's group together, Luke took leadership after he died but he really wasn't cut out for it. I also think that Nick was a good character, he was going through a lot but was starting to come out of it when they just killed him off. As for Caver and Lee I have an idea on how they are going to interact as well as Howes in general. Basically just expect some things to be different and yeah if Kenny realized where he was he could have had the group stay there instead.**

darknessarising- **Thanks man, glad you liked it.**

Guest- **I don't think Lee would kick his ass but he'd be pissed.**

Guest- **Well read on, it's funny that two people wanted to see this scene when I was already planning it out.**

MMendez- **She may or may not die, only time will tell. I'm glad that I'm writing her character well enough that she continues to have a good presence.**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

"Clementine, oh god. You're alright, you're alive." Lee whispered out as he walked over to her and crouched down,

"You're suppose to be dead, you died. I remember." Clementine said as tears rolled down her face,

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry you had to think that." Lee said slowly reaching his hand out,

Clementine suddenly slapped his hand away causing both Kenny and Molly to look at her shocked, "You left me! You told me to leave! Why?! Why would you do that to me?!" She shouted out into his face while crying hardly,

Lee's lowered his head, "I know, if I could change it I would have." He said as he felt a tear roll down his cheek and a weight pushing down on his heart,

Clementine was taking short ragged breaths before looking back up at Lee, "Lee." She choked out and leaped forward wrapping her arms around him, "I'm sorry, I love you Lee. I didn't mean to make you cry!" She exclaimed through her tears as she squeezed her arms around his neck,

"It's okay, shhh, it's alright sweetie." Lee whispered out as he ran his hand along her back,

"I-I almost killed you, it was my fault. You lost your arm because of me." Clementine wept out into his shoulder,

"No, don't you think that. Don't think that for a minute." Lee said quickly, "It was an accident, but we're both here now, we don't have to ever think about that again." He said trying to reassure her. A few minutes past as Lee and Clementine held an embrace just then they heard the door open and the rest of the group made their way inside.

"Dad, look! A Christmas tree!" Sarah exclaimed as she pointed over to the tree Lee and Kenny had just chopped down and brought inside,

"Not now Sarah." Carlos replied firmly,

Walter who had been leading the group stopped at the top of the stairs and turned back to them, "Please make yourselves at home, you can leave your things right there." He said pointing to a small bench,

"The hell we will!" Rebecca shot out aggressively,

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna hold onto my rifle, thanks." Nick said in agreement,

"Come on, no worries guys. I mean after what you buddy did on the bridge...doesn't that earn us a bit of trust." Matthew said trying to ease the tension,

"And what happened on the bridge?" Kenny quickly asked as he walked back over. Lee and Clementine both stood up and walked over to the stairs,

Matthew rubbed the back of his neck, "N-nothing, it was just a misunderstanding. Right Molly, that's what you'd call it right?"

"Not to many misunderstandings start with me getting shot." Molly said crossing her arms,

Lee quickly pulled out his gun and aimed at the group, "You need to put your guns down now!" He shouted out shocking most everyone in the group, Kenny didn't even flinch he too aimed his rifle down at the group. Luke and Nick aimed their guns up at them while Alvin shielded Rebecca as did Carlos to Sarah.

"What the fuck is this!?" Nick shouted out quickly putting his finger on the trigger and aiming at Lee,

"Everyone stop! This is not happening right now!" Sarita shouted out as she pushed herself in between both of the groups,

"Lee, Kenny! Listen to Sarita, lower your weapons! We do not want to fight these people!" Walter shouted out with a worried tone, "There is no reason for this to happen, please!"

"How about this, you put your guns down and we put ours down!" Nick said while his hands shook slightly,

"Please, Nick didn't mean to fire at your friends. He thought we were getting robbed, hell I stopped him too! Matthew, tell 'em!" Luke said pleadingly,

"He's right, if it wasn't for Luke I could be dead." Matthew said with a nod causing Walter to look at him in shock,

Kenny looked around the room and stopped at Clem, "Clem, you were with them. Do you vouch for this people?"

Lee looked down to Clementine who was looking at him in confusion as she never saw Lee be this aggressive to new people, "Tell us the truth Clementine, are these people good?" Lee asked firmly,

"Hey, leave her alone." Luke said defensively to Lee causing Lee to give him an extremely cold glare,

"No it's okay." Clementine finally spoke up, "They are cool, everyone is cool." Clementine said with a nod. Kenny stared at Clementine then back to Luke's group before finally walked down the steps and laying his rifle down. Luke let out a small nod and pulled out his machete placing it next to Kenny's rifle.

Lee and Nick held a long glare before Molly put a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, come on put it down." She said softly,

"He almost shot you." Lee hissed back to her,

"But he didn't, it's alright. Just put down your gun." Molly replied easily. Lee stared at her and finally his eyes went soft. He lowered his arm and slowly made his way down the steps laying his gun down and Nick in return dropped his rifle,

"Good. Now please let's just forget this hiccup and have a good night." Walter said with a relieved smile,

"Rita why don't you show them to their rooms." Matthew said as he put his rifle down,

"Of course follow me." Sarita replied leading Luke's group up the stairs to the second floor,

Lee, Kenny and Clementine walked into the den and took a seat on the couch. Kenny let out a warm smile and tapped the bill of her hat, "So you still wearing this dirty old thing huh?" He said with a little grin,

Clementine let out a little laugh and nodded, "So, where did you end up sweetie?" Lee asked curious,

"I was with Christa and Omid for a while." Clem replied with a small smile which quickly faded, "Omid...well." She said holding back a tear, "C-Christa and I were alone after that bit she's gone now."

"Oh hell." Kenny said sympathetically,

Lee reached out and wrapped his arm around her pulling her in letting her head rest on his chest, "I'm sorry, I wish you didn't have to go through that." He said with a drop in his voice,

"What about you two?" Clementine said with a little sniff as she wiped her eye, "Christa said you were dead Kenny and Lee…."

Kenny let out a small chuckle, "Back in Savannah when we went out looking for you, that fucking shit-bird Ben got himself trapped in an alley. I went to save him but it wasn't gonna happen." He said shaking his head, "I just got lucky in the end, was able to get outta the city some how til I met Sarita." He said with a smile as he looked over to her as she walked by,

Clementine let out a small smile and nodded, "But Lee, I don't understand. I thought you died." She said looking up at her,

Lee let out a small smile and shook his head, "Molly...she saved me. She found me and helped me get out of the city." He lowered his head and let out a sigh, "I looked for you honey, I searched all over but I just couldn't find you."

"It's okay, I'm just glad you're back." She said squeezing him with a tight hug,

"Me too." Lee replied warmly,

"Hey, think I could steal Lee for a second." Molly asked walking over,

Clementine let out a smile and nodded as Lee got up and walked away from the den with Molly upstairs. As Lee left the area Clementine's face dropped a bit, "Kenny?"

"Yeah darlin?" Kenny replied looking down at her,

"Lee seems different. Is he okay?" She asked a bit sadly,

"Yes sweetie he's just fine. He's just missed you like hell." Kenny said with a half smile, "Don't you worry now that you're here he'll be right as rain soon enough."

Clem let out a small smile and nodded before they both finally got up. Clementine walked around the lodge exploring and introducing herself to the group while Kenny and Lee both did a few minor things before dinner was finished. After ten minutes Walter called out to the lodge from the dining room, "Alright everyone dinner is served!"

Slowly everyone headed into the dining area, Luke's group and Lee's group sat at separate tables making Clem pause while heading over to sit down. She looked between the two tables while Kenny called her over and Luke waved her over slightly. Lee raised an eyebrow as he was curious about who Clem was going to sit with. He let out a small sigh as he watched her walk over to their table and sit down while Luke watched a bit sadly. Lee let out a smile and pushed a bowl of food over to her, "Here you go sweat pea."

Clem shook her head and smiled, "I actually really missed that." She said causing everyone at the table to smile,

"So Clem...we we're talking. What's the deal with the kid, Luke right? Is he in charge do ya trust him?" Kenny asked curiously,

"Kenny please." Sarita said with a small shake of her head,

"Yeah c'mon man, don't need to do this now." Matthew added with a nod,

"Hey we don't even know these people. Hell all I know is they took shots at you and Molly." Kenny said a bit coldly,

"Yes I trust him." Clementine said with a small nod,

"With your life?" Kenny asked quickly,

"Jesus Kenny." Lee said with a scoff, "Calm down man."

"C'mon Lee, you did the right thing earlier. Don't stop now, we need to make sure these guys ain't dangerous." Kenny replied,

"I don't know man." Lee said shaking his head, "I don't want to start any trouble with them."

"I ain't talking about starting trouble, I just want to know what their deal is. That guy, Big Al. He said they are on the run from someone." Kenny said pointing to Alvin,

"They are being chased by someone." Clementine said with a nod,

"Well you ain't gotta worry about that no more. Tomorrow they can leave and you can stay with us." Kenny said happily,

Lee noticed Clementine's eyes go wide and a worried look grow across her face. "Hey it's okay honey, we'll talk to them." Lee said comfortingly,

"No, it's okay. I want to stay." Clementine said with a smile,

"Good." Kenny said with a full smile,

Molly reached her hand out and ran it across Lee's jaw, "Sorry just had to make sure you were still Lee. I can't believe that you are actually talking about trying to talk this out." She said with a sarcastic smirk. Lee peered over to her with narrowed eyes, "Calm down, just a joke." She said with a little laugh and leaned in kissing him, "Thank god your beard is gone." She said with a little smirk,

Clementine let out a little laugh, "What?" Lee asked with a smirk,

"You had a beard?" Clementine said while holding back a grin, "Like a big beard?"

"Oh yeah he did, a huge bushy beard." Molly said with a nod, "But not to worry, I got him to shave it down today."

"I can't imagine you with a beard Lee." Clementine said as she took another bite of beans,

Lee shook his head and continued to eat with a huge smile, "Hey now, what about me?" Kenny asked with a smirk,

"You look better with a beard." Clem replied with a shrug,

"I agree." Sarita said with a chuckle.

A few minutes after silently eating Luke and Nick both stood up and walked over to the table. Sarita, Matthew, Molly and Walter all got up leaving Kenny, Lee and Clem to try and talk things through with them. Luke and Nick sat down a bit awkwardly, Luke looked at Clem a bit hurt at her decision while Nick avoided Lee's direct eye contact, "Hey there." Kenny said with a bit of a nod to Luke,

"Hey." Luke said as he rubbed the back of his neck,

"You guys like the food?" Lee asked as he took another bite,

"Oh yeah...it's uh, it's great. Thank you." Luke replied with a bit of a shrug,

"Yeah peaches and beans. Great for nutrition but not too good on the way out." Kenny said then let out a bellowing laugh causing Clem to look at him oddly. Lee shook his head ever so slightly and continued to eat, he wasn't exactly sure if he was ready to talk to them yet. "So Luke...and Nick. Luke and Nick. You guys sure do look like a match."

Luke jumped back in surprise at the quip while Nick angrily leaned forward, "And what the hell is that suppose to mean?" Nick asked staring Kenny dead in the eyes,

"Easy guys." Lee said looking up, "I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it."

"No, no, I just meant you looked like good friends." Kenny said holding back a grin,

Luke took a deep breath, "So what's the plan here? Hold out for the winter?" Luke asked the pair,

Kenny raised an eyebrow, "Actually we're thinking of moving somewhere up north."

Lee narrowed his eyes, "No we're probably gonna be staying here." He said firmly.

Kenny looked over at him and gave him a little shrug, "I said we were thinking about it. I mean we heard of this place Wellington, you heard of it?" He asked looking around,

"Wellington? The hell is that?" Luke asked confused,

"A place." Kenny quickly shot back,

"What kind of place?" Luke asked with a roll of his eyes,

"A good one, Einstein." Kenny replied with a scoff,

"Kenny, enough!" Lee yelled out,

"What?" Kenny asked with an agitated tone,

Clem's eyes went a little wide with some fear, "I've heard of it!" She called out getting everyone's attention, "Christa and I were heading to it when we got separated."

Kenny let out a smile and nodded. Lee let out a slow breath calming himself, "Yeah, it's somewhere north of here, probably on the Michigan line." Lee said with a nod,

"Michigan?" Nick asked,

"Yeah kid Michigan! You got a hearing problem or something?" Kenny snapped out,

"Alright Kenny enough." Lee said firmly before looking back to Nick, "So it's up north, food, supplies. Wide open spaces and cold winters to keep the walkers slow."

Nick let out a scoff, "Sounds like bullshit."

Kenny narrowed his eyes, "Listen Vanilla Ice, I don't know what your problem is but-" Kenny started to say,

"Alright!" Lee boomed out slamming his fist down, "You are gonna stop that shit right now!"

Kenny looked at Lee a bit shocked, surprised he wasn't backing him up. He slowly narrowed his eyes and looked over to Clem, "Pass me that can Duck." Kenny said quickly let let out a gasp before lowering his head,

"Duck? Who's Duck?" Luke asked confused,

While Lee put his hand on Kenny's shoulder Clem whispered to Luke, "Duck was his son." Luke looked over at Kenny with a bit of sympathy.

 **Alright so we have another chapter down, and already we are having some tension between the groups. Lee is also have many conflicting thoughts right now, with Clem back he's trying to be the person he used to be but his loss of temper he's developed is making it a bit hard and Clem seems to have noticed this. Next chapter things are really going to pick up so I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I looked forward to your reviews.**


	12. A House Divided

Guest- **Lee isn't really being a psycho he being extremely protective. That being said he is trying to pull back and be who he used to be.**

Smeake- **Thanks, Glad you liked it.**

Guest- **Indeed, and who knows how the match up will go.**

Ph4nT0mE4G1e- **At the moment it does seem that Kenny and Lee are the same temper wise and to an extent that is true but Lee will always have better control of his emotions than Kenny. As for Caver, read on.**

ArktosFTW- **Things will indeed go downhill as for Lee and Clem they are in the process of meeting each other again. It's been over a year and a half since they lost each other so they are both different people now, just as Kenny was when Clem met him again.**

Guest- **Glad you're enjoying it, and as long as I have a plan I'll keep putting chapters up.**

Fewpolecat93- **Yeah Kenny gets a bad wrap but to be honest he's one of the few characters that's built for this world. Sure he can be a bit emotionally unstable but compared to everyone else in season 2 he was the only one who knew what the hell to do next.**

GaterWaters- **Clem is going to be independent but at the same time Clem is going to look to others as well. I get some want her to just be forceful and able to survive but she's still a kid and she is a team player in the end.**

Worker72- **Nick always reminded me of a more capable Ben. He was a younger guy who didn't know exactly what to do but did his best to do what he thought was right. As for Carver and Lee, I think a lot of you will like their interactions, because I have a bit of a plan for them.**

Guest- **Well Clem notices that Lee is different. From her perspective Lee is constantly on edge but this particular Lee in season one killed the St Johns and killed the stranger so she doesn't expect him to be some pure nice guy who always does the moral thing. And Lee always realizes he's been away from Clem longer than he was with her so he needs to learn who she is all over again.**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

A lingering silence held as Kenny silently ate his food while Luke and Nick awkwardly sat unsure what to say. Suddenly, Clementine let out a little wince and held her wrist, "What's wrong Clem?" Lee asked concerned,

"It's my arm, I think it might be infected." Clem mumbled out as she rolled up her sleeve,

Lee and Kenny's eyes widened as they saw the bandage that had a large blood stain on it, "I don't know Clem, Carlos gave you clean bill of health the other day."

"Yeah? Well maybe he's wrong. He couldn't even tell a dog bite from a walker bite." Clem shot back a bit angrily,

"Come on now Clem, you know we were just being cautious." Luke said a bit defensively,

"Yeah, locking a bleeding girl in a shed is real cautious." Clem grumbled out as she lowered her sleeve again,

"What?" Lee said narrowing his eyes,

"The hell is she talking about?" Kenny asked with a furious look,

Luke let out a little gulp, "Calm the fuck down man." Nick shot out quickly,

"Shut the fuck up." Lee said coldly and looked over to Luke, "You locked her in a shed? With a bleeding wound?"

"Look guys I tried to help her out but we couldn't tell if she was bit by a walker of not. Carlos said putting her in the shed until morning would let out know if she was infected or not." Luke said quickly trying to calm them,

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Kenny spat out, "Why would she lie about a fucking bite?"

"I-I, uh-" Luke fumbled out,

"You did treat her at the least? Clem did they treat you?" Lee asked looking over to her,

Clem let out a small worried look before lowering her head, "Yeah, well not until I sewed my arm up myself." Luke looked over at her wide eyed, "What?" She said looking over at him, "I'm not gonna lie about it."

"That the type of people you are?" Lee said icily, "Just leave a little girl bleeding, cold and in a shed? Making her stitch herself up?"

"I'm sorry, I've told her that and I'll tell you the same. We fucked up but she's alright now." Luke said sincerely,

Lee opened his mouth to say something but Clem spoke up, "Lee?" She said causing him to look over, "Please stop, it's alright." She said softly causing Luke to let out a relieved look,

Lee stared at her and looked back to Luke before letting out a sigh, "Alright Clem, if that's what you want." He said halfheartedly,

The group went silent again and after a few moments Walter's words broke the silence, "Hey Clementine, could you help me outside for a moment." He asked from just behind her,

Clementine let out a quick nod and got to her feet following Walter down the stairs out to the front of the lodge. Lee watched her walk away and hung his head while closing his eyes, he felt like he had been letting her down ever since she got back. As Walter and Clem slowly walked around the lodge Walter spoke up, "I'm so sorry about that. I used to be a teacher and I know what it's like when you're caught in the middle of two cliques. I suspect they will find common ground soon enough."

Clementine lowered her head and let out a small nod, "It's so different now."

Walter let out a nod a put a hand on her shoulder, "I understand it's a bit hard now but these things take time. But that's how these things work, everything will be fine."

Clementine shook her head, "It's not just that, it's Lee." Clem said with a shaky breath, "He used to be nice but now he's different."

Walter looked at her sympathetically, "Clementine, Lee may be different but he is a good man. He told me of how he met you and how much you meant to him. The two of you have a connection that is special and you can't let that go away." Clementine glanced up at him and she let out a small smile, "Relationships are like machines, you don't just scrap them when they break down, you get your hands dirty and grease the wheels."

Clementine let out a wider smile and seemed to light up, "I want to stay with Lee and Kenny. I want to do what you said, fix what I had with Lee."

"Then stay you shall, I know that will please them both." Walter said with a nod,

"I missed them, I just thought they wouldn't have changed." Clementine admitted,

"Well they missed you, I can assure you of that, I'm sure they are noticing your changes as well." Walter looked back down to her as they got closer to the lodge corner, "You all just need to become reaquainted with one another again." Walter stopped and looked down at her, "You know they say the world is over but can I tell you a secret; it's not. People are more political now than they ever were. In the end, we can't change the world. All we can do now is continue to learn from each other; to empathize and use our heads." Walter took a deep breath and looked up at the night sky, "All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal. Steinback, have you read him?" Clem looked up at him with a confused look and shook her head, "Well that will change, Matthew has dozens of books that I'm sure you'll love. In any case, my point is: as long as we have our wits and continue to work with each other everything will work out fine. Right?"

"Right." Clementine said a bit halfheartedly,

Back in the lodge, just as Clementine and Walter headed outside Lee got up from the table and made his way back up to his room. He was feeling nearly depressed and just needed a minute to gather his thoughts, as soon as he got to the top of the stairs Molly was right behind him, "Hey...you alright?" She asked a softly,

"Huh?" Lee said turning back to her, "No, yeah, i'm fine." Lee said with a small nod,

"Hey," Molly said walking up to him and taking his hand, "Talk to me, what's wrong."

Lee stared at her sadly and started to well up a bit, "I, I don't know if I'm good for Clementine anymore." He said hardly, "She seems more afraid of me now than ever before. All I've wanted since I lost her was to find her again but now that I did I think she's better off without me. Hell you've seen what I've become over the year."

"Stop it." Molly said quickly but firmly, "That girl idolizes you, just because things are rough right now doesn't mean she should just leave. You two are family, and family doesn't quit on each other. Especially now, so don't just sit here sulking, you've got a little girl down there waiting to see you again." She said with a bit of a smile,

Lee stared at her for a moment and took a long inhale, "You don't think I'm a bad guy, do you?"

"Lee, bad guys are like Crawford. You don't shoot on site, you just want everyone to be safe, that's not bad." She replied without a hint of doubt before kissing him deeply, "Now go on, get back down there before Clementine starts idolizing Kenny or Walter. Now that would be a travesty." Lee let out a soft chuckle and nodded walking back down the stairs heading down towards the door,

"Hey hold up a sec." Kenny called out as he ran over,

"Oh, hey man." Lee said a bit awkwardly unsure if Kenny would be pissed at him because of dinner,

Kenny instantly picked up on this, "Don't worry pal, I get why you did that at dinner. You didn't want to upset Clem, but you gotta admit these guys seem a bit off."

"I don't know man but I guess it can't hurt to keep an eye on them." Lee said with a small nod,

"That's what I was thinking." Kenny said as he knelt down and grabbed his rifle and Lee's pistol, "Here, let's go see what Walt got up to." He said handing him his pistol.

The pair walked outside and spotted Walter and Clementine finishing their conversation, "What are you kids talking about?" Kenny asked with a smirk,

"Politics." Walter replied with a smirk,

"The hell?" Kenny said with a scoff,

"Really? I figured with you being from Florida you'd be very political." Walter said with some surprise, "Lee you must be political, a huge part of history is politics."

Lee let out a nod, "Politics is a big part of everything, the ability to talk changed the world constantly." Lee said causing Walter to let out a smile,

"Exactly what I was telling Clementine here. Politics-" Walter started to continue,

"No matter how you cut it Walt: politics aren't interesting to kids." Lee said with a smirk causing Clem to let out a little giggle,

"Hey was gonna check around the lodge before this storm hits. You want to help us out Clem?" Kenny asked with a eager look,

Clementine quickly nodded and the four of them started walking to the side of the lodge. As they walked Lee put his arm around Clem's shoulder and she leaned over letting him hold her close. However this quickly ended at they spotted a red headed woman looking through the window. Kenny's eyes narrowed and he was about to raise his gun but stopped as he felt Walters hand on his shoulder.

"Miss?" Walter called out calmly as Lee and Clem both pulled out their guns,

The woman stared at the four of them in shock and fear. She stared at Kenny's rifle in particular before putting her hands up and saying, "Please, do you have any food?"

Walter immediately stepped forward, "Are you okay?" He asked genuinely concerned,

"I saw the house...I have a family and we're starving." The woman said slowly lowering her hands,

"Of course, why don't you come in miss…." Walter said waiting for her name,

"Bonnie." She finished,

"Walt I don't know about that. Are you really gonna let her in just like that?" Kenny said a bit wary,

"Maybe we should just talk to her first." Lee said not wanting to put the others in danger,

"It's fine guys." Walter replied,

"Naw, we outta listen to Lee on this one." Kenny said a bit firmly, "We don't even know this girl."

"Then we get to know her." Walter said looking back at him,

"And we can do that right here." Lee said sternly not backing down,

"We should check her for weapons." Clementine said while crossing her arms,

"Yeah..." Kenny said with a nod while Lee glanced down at her in a bit of surprise,

"Thank ya'll, but it'll storm soon and I've got to get back to my family." Bonnie said inching away,

"So what, you just come up here to stare through our windows then leave?" Lee said in disbelief,

"Lee relax." Walter said easily, "I'll bring something out for you instead." Walter said with a smile,

"You really don't need to do that." Bonnie replied,

"No, no, it's fine. You just stay put, I'll be right back. We've got plenty." Walter said quickly walking back to the lodge.

Bonnie stood there avoiding eye contact with Kenny and Lee who both were sizing her up, for Lee something felt extremely off with this woman's story. "I...have a little girl like you." Bonnie said with a small smile to Clementine, "What's your daughter's name?"

"She's not my daughter." Lee said a bit coldly, "But i'm looking out for her." Clementine stared coldly at Bonnie not answering the question. The silence lingered until Walter returned with a large box full of food, Lee grimaced at the amount but it was clear Walter wasn't going to be diswayded,

He handed it to her with a smile, "Here you are miss."

"This is too much." Bonnie said shocked,

"Don't mention it, just help someone else along the way." Walter said with a warm smile, "Now you take care, and stay safe."

"Thanks, you too." Bonnie said sincerely before turning around and walking away,

As they watched Bonnie walk away Kenny looked over to Lee, "Hey why don't you two head back inside, I gotta talk to Walt for a second."

Lee let out a nod and the pair headed back towards the lodge, "That was dumb." Clementine said as soon as they were out of earshot,

"You're probably right." Lee said with a nod as he rubbed his head and sighed, "Christa made you pretty capable huh?' He said with a little smirk as he looked down at her,

Clementine looked back up at him and smiled, "Yeah but you helped a lot." Lee put his arm back around her as they got to the lodge door,

"Lee?" Clementine said softly stopping him before they went inside,

"Yes honey?" Lee said turned back and crouching down,

"I'm sorry for being so mean. I don't want you to think I'm not happy to see you." She said as she reached over and took hold over her other arm with her hand,

"Oh sweetie you weren't being mean." Lee let out a little smile and shook his head, "I guess we both have changed but just know I'm still here for you." Clementine smiled and reached out hugging him tightly. Lee hugged back and after a moment the pair headed back inside.

While Lee and Clementine walked back into the lodge Nick walked over to Matthew who was sitting in the den. "Hey Matthew, right? That's your name?" He asked a bit awkwardly,

Matthew put down his book and looked up at Nick, "Yeah? What's up Nick?"

Nick let out a sigh and rubbed his brow, "Look, about what happened earlier today. I really fucked up. I didn't know who you were and when I saw you and that girl…"

"Molly." Matthew finished his thought,

"Molly right, when I saw you two I thought you were gonna rob my friends." Nick walked over and sat down on a chair, "Look man I've been going through some shit, I lost my uncle two weeks ago and I don't know if he even knows how much I cared about him. I haven't even been thinking straight and now I almost fucking killed you. I just wanted to say how sorry I am for that."

Matthew took a moment to take it all in before letting out a sigh, "Alright, I forgive you." He said with a quick nod and picked up his book again,

"Wait, just like that?" Nick asked surprised,

"Just like that." Matthew said not looking up at him,

"But I...I mean I shout at you man." Nick said confused,

Matthew shook his head and peered up at him, "Do you want me to be pissed at you?"

"Well no but if I was you I'd want to kill me." Nick said hanging his head,

"Good thing I'm not you." Matthew said but noticed Nick wasn't leaving, "Nick." Matthew said looking up at him once again, "It's alright man, it was a mistake. It could have been back but I didn't get just need to let it go alright?"

Just then they both heard a extremely loud humming noise coming from outside. "What the hell is that?" Nick asked getting to his feet while everyone else ran down the stairs to the den,

"Oh shit." Lee groaned out as he realized it was the wind turbine spinning wildly,

"Swear." Clementine said with a smirk from behind him making him look down at her with a grin,

Just then Kenny pulled open the lodge door, "Lee! Get out here man, need your help!" He called out quickly. Lee wasting no time ran over to the stairs and started running down them heading outside. Clementine waited a few seconds before following and the others quickly followed suit. "It's the turbine again, that thing will draw walkers for miles. We gotta shut it down." Kenny said Lee as everyone shuffled outside,

"Nick help me with the guns." Carlos quickly said as he turned back heading back inside. Within minutes Carlos and Nick passed out pistols and rifles to everyone. Lee and Kenny lead them to the wind turbine but just then they both heard a zap. "What was that?" Carlos asked looking around,

Suddenly the lights shut off in the lodge, "Shit, transformer musta gone." Kenny groaned out, "Gonna have to get it running again. Could use a hand." He said looking around,

"I'll go." Lee said only for Kenny to shake his head,

"Need you up here." Kenny quickly replied,

"Don't worry, I'll go." Luke said stepping forward.

Kenny eyed him for a minute before nodding, "Alright. Lee get this fucker turned off!" Kenny shouted out as he and Luke ran off towards the transfuser,

The group closed in around the wind turbine, "Does anyone know how to turn off this thing?" Carlos asked concerned,

"Just buy me some time." Lee replied quickly as he pulled open the small door on the side of the turbine,

Carlos nodded and everyone dispersed forming a half circle around Lee and Clementine. As soon as Lee opened the door he let out a groan at how dark it was but Clem pulled out a lighter and lit it bringing just enough light to see. Lee started peering around and Clem pointed to his left, "Look there's a key."

Lee quickly grabbed it and found a small red button that had a key hold and a sign on top of it that said emergency stop. Lee pushed the key in a turned it, then pushed the button in. Within seconds the wind turbine let out a groan before coming to a halt. The group stood there in silence, "I don't like this, something's wrong." Nick said with a worried tone,

Just then the group heard the growls of the dead as they started to pour out of the woods around them. "We don't have much ammunition." Carlos said as he aimed his pistol up,

"Stay calm, we can just need to get back to the lodge." Lee said as he pulled out his pistol,

"Son of a bitch, behind us." Molly said with an annoyed sigh as she pulled out Hilda and ran forward stabbing a walker through the skull.

Everyone began to spread out taking shots at the walkers while moving back towards the lodge. Clementine ran over to a larger rock and crouched down before standing back up aiming her gun, fear filled her eyes as she saw half a dozen walkers shambling towards her. She started firing and took out three of the before she heard a click from her gun. Just as the walkers neared her two shots came flying out a struck them in the head, "Clem get back to the lodge!" Lee shouted out only for a walker from behind him to latch onto him,

"LEE!" Clementine screeched out and ran over to him as he was wrestling the walker doing his damndest to keep it away from him. Clementine reached Lee and quickly picked up his gun put the barrel to the walker's head and pulled the trigger. Lee tossed the corpse to the side and looked up at her, "Are you okay?!"

"Fine, I'm fine. We gotta get inside." Lee said getting up and taking his gun back, "Thanks Clem." Lee added on as the pair started running back to the lodge,

Just then a few more walkers rounded the corner and cut them off from the door. Lee yelled out and got their attention and started leading them away, "Go on, just get inside!" He shouted to Clem while backing away. Clementine looked fearfully at Lee but quickly shifted her attention to a single walker that was now going after here. She ran back and spotted a rifle underneath a walker.

While Clem was trying to pry the rifle out from under the walker Molly ran over to Lee and started taking shots at the walkers quickly, "You're a popular guy, you know that?!" She said with a smirk as she reached his side,

"Yeah, real hard to be me." Lee replied sarcastically as he fired his last round into a walkers skull. The three walkers fell to the ground and the pair started moving back to the door, "Where's Clem? Did you see here?' He asked quickly only for Molly to shake her head. Just then they heard a rifle shot go off and turned to see Clem fall to the ground as the rifles kickback was too much.

Lee took off in a dead sprint at the walker as Clementine crawled back in terror. Within seconds Lee was behind the walker and he jammed his foot down on its ankle breaking its leg and sending it to the ground. He moved forward and quickly slammed his foot down on it's skull caving it in with a bellowing yell. He looked back at Clem, "I'm okay, thanks Lee." She said with a half smile as she got to her feet.

The now trio ran back towards the lodge and spotted Nick struggling with a walker doing his best to hold it back, "Nick!" Clem exclaimed,

"Please, help me!" He cried out only for the walker to get shot in the skull from the side,

Nick turned over and was shocked to see Matthew standing with his rifle aimed up, "Now you owe me two! Get your asses inside!" He commanded as he ran along with walker towards the rest of the group to continue to take shots. Nick along with Molly, Lee and Clem ran into the lodge quickly and just as they got into the den they heard the sounds of assault rifles firing. They ran to the window and watched confused and fearfully as four people marched out of the forest, one was Bonnie and the other was a man Clementine met not two weeks ago.

"Howdy folks." The man said with an easy smile as everyone outside was corralled, "Where's Rebecca?" The man asked Carlos,

"Carver!" Rebecca exclaimed from inside the lodge,

"Nick, Molly, go see if you can find more guns or ammo." Lee commanded causing them to both run around the lodge checking for weapons,

Just outside Carlos spit in Carver's face, "Nice to see you to…" Carver replied as he wiped his face and then gave him a full force punch to the face sending him to the ground.

"Dad!" Sarah exclaimed and took off running outside,

"Sarah!" Rebecca exclaimed in fear as she watched Sarah run up to Carlos and hug him. Carver let out a small grin and pointed towards the lodge and motioned for the group to be lead inside. Walter stared at Bonnie in shock and a bit of anger as he realized who she was.

"Shit." Lee said leading the group away from the window and up the stairs just as they got inside. They watched as everyone was knelt down and had their hands tied behind their back, all except Carlos.

Carver took hold of Carlos and brought him towards the front of the lodge and slammed his fist in his gut sending him to his knees, "Where is Rebecca?' He asked coldly,

Sarah was crying out for Carlos. Carlos completely ignoring Carver looked up at her and said, "Look at me, Sarah. Everything is gonna be okay."

Carver grabbed Carlos's hand and quickly snapped one of his fingers causing him to yell out in pain, "Rebecca!? Rebecca, our baby deserves to be raised in a place of safety!" Carver called out causing Alvin to clench his fist in anger, "I know you're out there, you, Alvin, Luke, the girl." He said causing Lee to look over at Clem in concern, "If you want this over quick, you all play nice and show your faces. It's real simple." Sarah continued to cry as Carlos held his finger and winced in pain.

"We gotta go down there, he'll kill them." Alvin said sternly,

"We can't, he'll kill you." Rebecca said in almost tears,

"Maybe we should try to find Kenny and Luke." Clementine spoke up,

"Yes, we should try to do that." Rebecca said quickly agreeing only from them to hear Carver break another one of Carlos's fingers and Sarah to yell out again,

"Won't work, only way outside is through those windows." Lee explained and pointed to some very small ones, "None of us can fit."

"I can." Clementine said quickly,

"What? No, Clem it's too dangerous. He knows about you." Lee said extremely concerned,

"Lee, I can do this. We need Kenny's help." Clementine said firmly,

Lee stared at the girl and let out a slow exhale, "Fine, you find them. Keep your head down and if anything bad starts happening in here you tell Kenny to surrender. We don't need everyone to die."

"Lee, we can't surrender." Molly exclaimed through a whisper,

"Yes we can, hopefully Kenny and Luke will be able to handle this before that." Lee said as he lead Clem to a window and helped her climb out. Molly started to walk over to him to say something but Lee stood up, "Okay, we're coming out!"

Carver let out a grin and watched as Lee lead the five of them downstairs. Carver walked over to Rebecca and let out a smile, "Hey sweetie." He said only for her to spit in his face, he wiped her spit away and said, "That's alright, we'll reteach you in manners as soon as we're back home."

"Hey Bill, what do we do with this one. No other arm to tie together." Carver's second in command asked,

Carver walker over and stared at Lee who stared right back into his eyes without looking away for a moment, "Easy Troy, I don't think we'll have a problem will we…." Carver asked leading to his name,

"Lee. Lee Everett." Lee replied coldly,

"Lee." Carver said with a small nod, "Lee, where are the rest of your people."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Lee replied easily,

Carver let out a laugh and hit Lee in the stomach had. Lee doubled over in pain for a second but took a deep breath and remained standing, "Don't fucking lie to me. Where's the girl, Luke, the asshole in the ballcap. Bonnie told us what she saw." Carver asked as he jammed his finger in Lee's face,

Lee stared at him not answering and after a moment Carver's face let out a small smirk. "Sit down, you want to drag this out that's fine. We have all the time to find these people." He said as Troy forced Lee down onto his knees.

Just then a gunshot ran out and one of Carver's men by the window were struck in the head killing him instantly. Bonnie let out a yell of fear as Carver's eyes narrowed and pure anger flowed through him. He marched over and grabbed Walter and lead him towards the window, "What, No! What are you doing!?" Matthew shouted out as he fell to his sides trying to get out of his binds. Carver put him to his knees and quickly put a round from his revolver into Walter's skull, "No!" Matthew shouted out as he broke down into tears,

"That was for our man! Now I didn't want to do this, but you ain't leaving me much choice. So here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna march another one of your friends out here and put a bullet in them until you finally decide to give up. A shot rang out and hit the beam that Carver was hiding behind near inches from his face. Carver walked over and grabbed Alvin using him as a shield and started marching him forward.

"Kenny stop! Someone tell him to stop!" Rebecca cried out,

"Kenny, enough man!" Lee called out only for Troy to hit him roughly on the back of his head,

Yet another shot rang out this time from a different area and actually hit Carver. He fell to the ground and everyone stood in shock for a few seconds thinking it was done. Suddenly Carver seemed to spring back to life. He held his arm where the bullet hit him and quickly shot Alvin in the head causing Rebecca to break down. Carver walked back over to the group and grabbed hold of Lee, holding him like a shield once again and pressing the revolver to his temple.

"NO! DON'T!" Clementine screeched out from outside,

"Stop! We're coming out!" Kenny said and dropped his rifle. Clementine and Kenny slowly walked forward towards the lodge and Bonnie lead them in at gunpoint. Carver, as his word said, let Lee go and while Kenny and Clem were being tied up checked his shoulder,

"No sign of Luke outside." Troy said walking over,

"Fuck 'em, we don't have time for this anymore." Carver replied as he ignored his wound, "We need to get moving."

"What about there new friends here?" Troy asked,

"There friends are coming home with us." Carver said with a eerily calm smile to the whole group as they were forced to stand up and lead out of the lodge.

 **Alright here we are, two deaths. Yes they are cannon deaths, well not exactly Alvins but they were in game. Nick was saved and Carver and Lee have finally met. So next chapter the group is brought to Howes and that's where things get really good. I hope you liked this chapter and if you dead just send me a review, I always look forward to reading them.**


	13. The Pen

ArktosFTW- **When it comes to Carver, who knows who will be the one to finish him off, well I know but you'll see soon enough.**

Guest- **They may not have blown up at Luke but they will definitely remember it. Also what lead to them easing off was Clem telling them to let it go.**

Smeake- **Thanks, glad you liked it.**

Fewpolecat93- **I have a bit of a plan for Matthew and it would feel a bit shallow for him to die just after I saved him.**

Jason Kreuger Myers- **Glad you are liking Lee and Molly as well as the story in general. As for Kenny he is the type of guy that you need in this world, he just isn't the one who should be leading but with Lee leading and Kenny being his second in command who knows what they could accomplish.**

Worker72- **To me if Carlos was a real doctor or not was alway irrelevant, he just took up the job and he was able to look over Clem's wound after she patched herself up so he knows at least a small amount.**

I87- **I have no plans as of now to kill off Molly but I can't say I won't ever, who knows what could happen in this world…**

Guest- **Right now haha, and glad you like the story.**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

Lee and the others sat in the truck each tied up. Lee having on other arm had his one arm handcuffed to the wall that had a pipe running along the inside of the truck. Lee's heart was beating a hundred miles an hour as Sarah and Clementine both had gotten out of the truck to use the bathroom, "There not back yet." He said with a worried tone,

"It's only been a few minutes." Nick said trying to calm him. Lee seemed to not even hear him as he looked back to his pipe and started to pull on it hardly,

"What are you doing?" Sarita asked with a worried tone,

"I'm getting out of this fucking thing." Lee shot back as he yanked against the pipe, "We can still take these guys, surprise them."

"He's right, we can't just get up." Kenny said with a nod, "We just need to get outta our ties."

"Guys look around, we don't have this in us." Molly said motioning to Rebecca and Matthew who were sitting in states of shock and sadness. Kenny's eyes softened and he looked away from them not wanting to look them in the eye as he was the cause of Walter's and Alvins deaths.

"I'm not gonna just-" Lee started to say as he heard a noise just outside the van and a soft whimper. "What the fuck was that." Lee said narrowing his eyes. The van's doors opened, Sarah and Clem hopped inside and Lee's eyes widened as he could see a red mark on Clem's cheek, "YOU FUCKER! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU HEAR ME!" Lee boomed out causing everyone to jump in shock as he pulled against the pipe wildly.

Troy let out a scoff and slammed the doors shut as Kenny looked over to Clem, "Hey, what happened? Did they hurt you?" He asked sincerely,

Nearly three hours later the group was sitting silently while Lee was kneeling down taking heavy breaths, despite his best efforts he just wasn't strong enough to pull the pipe off. Molly scooted over to him and put her hands onto his shoulder, "You gotta stop, keep a cool head." She said soothingly,

"Fuck that. As soon as I get my strength back I'm ripping this fucker off." Lee grumbled back to her,

Kenny let out a small nod and started to look around, "Okay even if Lee can get out of his cuffs he's gonna need some help. So anyone got anything sharp, anything that we can use to cut these ties off?" Kenny looked around and saw no one really moving, "Clem, Clem look around see if you can find anything sharp that could help."

"What good is that gonna do?" Rebecca said coldly,

"It's no use, the both of you should just stop." Carlos said dismissively,

"The hell is wrong with you people?" Kenny said nearly disgusted,

"We need to get the fuck out of here. We can't just give up." Lee said as he stood back up and started to pull against the pipe again,

"Damn right, we are in a precarious situation here." Kenny said with a nod, "Listen to Lee, we have to do something about it!"

"Settle down, the both of you." Carlos said sternly, "They took everything, we have to keep a level head."

"I hate to not back you guys up here but jumping out a going fucking Rambo isn't going to work here." Molly said as easily as she could,

Lee looked back at her coldly as he continued to pull against his pipe, "Are you fucking kidding me?" Kenny shot out, "Us getting closed up in their home turf is the perfect way for us to die, we've been in this situation before and barely got out of it. Clem you remember, the dairy right?" Kenny said looking over to her and she let out a slow nod, "This is just like that we can't let them trap us up like that."

Lee let out a loud groan and suddenly a piece of the pipe bent out and he flew to the ground. Kenny looked over to him and smiled as Lee sat up and looked at him with a smirk, "Now we're talking, alright pal we can do this."

"No you don't understand, you don't know Bill like we do." Rebecca said with a small amount of fear in her voice,

"Bill? This whole time it's been Carver, Carver, Carver, now he's fuckin' Bill?" Kenny asked angrily causing Rebecca to hang her head,

"Wait a minute." Lee said making everyone to look over at him, "You said you were being chased, you used to be with the fucker weren't you?" Lee said looking around at their faces,

Kenny's eyes widened, "You mean to tell me you guys are just getting a fucking ride home?!"

"Say that again." Nick said aggressively with his face twisting in anger,

"I'd stay outta this boy." Kenny shot back to him,

"Mister I ain't a boy." Nick said defensively,

"No, right, you're a man." Kenny said sarcastically,

"Stop, we need to work together here. He's only got two people with him. We get a gun and this will be pretty much over." Lee said trying to keep Kenny and the others on point,

"You don't understand, he's different now. He's worse." Rebecca said trying to stop them,

"What do you mean worse?" Clementine asked now curious how far their relationship went,

"He's a fucking psychopath now." Kenny said with a scoff,

"You have no idea what you're dealing with!" Carlos shouted out angrily,

"Oh he gave us a pretty good idea back in the lodge and that's why me and Lee here don't want to sit around until he decides do that to the rest of us!" Kenny shot back,

"We are trying to help!" Lee shouted out growing angry,

"Yeah, I'm sure Walter and Alvin really appreciated your help." Carlos said harshly causing Kenny's face to sink and Matthew to bury his face in his hands as he began to sob,

"Shut your fucking mouth." Lee said aggressively, "Don't you dare put that on us, Carver's the one who killed them."

"He's right, you can't blame him for the actions of a mad man." Sarita said in defense of Kenny,

"I am just pointing out, regardless of intent, there are consequences to rash actions. Something they are misreading as capitulation!" Carlos angrily explained,

"I don't know what the fuck you're saying, but I know it's bullshit! Lee, help me get outta this fucking thing." Kenny said getting to his feet,

"Will you two sit down! You'll get us all killed." Carlos said quickly,

Lee and Kenny ignored him as Kenny cut his binds off using a jagged piece of metal from the pipe Lee broke off, "If we have to drag you to fucking freedom, fine." Lee grumbled out,

"You'll drag us to our deaths." Rebecca said with a quiver in her voice,

"Stop Fighting! Please!" Clem cried out stopping them dead,

Kenny's binds fell to the floor and he let out a smile, "Now we're talking."

"You don't get it, Carver will be on the other side of that door with ten men, not two." Carlos quickly said, "Right now, Luke may be the only hope we have."

"Fuck that, that guy's a flake, I could tell the first minute I saw him. He abandoned us!" Kenny said with a scoff,

"You don't know that!" Nick shot out quickly,

"Look maybe he's out there, maybe not but he's not here now. I don't want any more of our people to get hurt but this is our best shot at getting out of here." Lee said trying to explain his reasoning,

"Luke will help us." Clem said looking up to Lee and Kenny,

"When?! After that crazy fuck has killed us all!?" Kenny shouted at Clem causing her to look up at him fearfully,

Lee narrowed his eyes and grabbed Kenny's shirt, "Calm down!"

"I am fucking calm! Do I look fucking angry to you!?" Kenny shouted into his face,

"Yeah you fucking do! If we are doing this we gotta be smart, we can't start this half cocked." Lee quickly shot back causing Kenny to take a deep breath and calm himself, "Clem, honey do you trust me?" Lee said looking back to her. Clem stared at him for a minute before letting out a slow nod, "Okay then listen to me, we have to do something now."

"And what is your plan exactly?" Carlos asked dismissively,

"I'm gonna punch the first sonofabitch I see then take his gun and use it to shoot the next sonofabitch I see!" Kenny shot back. Lee walked over to the pipe and after wiggling it a bit a piece came off, "Even better, now we got a weapon."

Suddenly they could feel the truck come to a halt and start to back up, "We're here." Nick said with a shallow voice,

"Then we gotta do this now. Clem, do what you can to help. Don't get yourself hurt or anything but just help out you know." Kenny said with a hopeful look. Suddenly Molly got up and grabbed the pipe out of Lee's hand and hit him on the head sending him to the ground. Kenny looked over to her in shock but the truck shifted sending him forward and smashing his body into the doors knocking him to the ground,

"That was...probably for the best." Carlos said in shock,

"Why did you do that?" Clem said confused,

"I don't want him getting hurt." Molly said holding Lee's head in her lap tenderly, "He's gonna be pissed at me later though."

Just then the doors rolled open, Troy and Bonnie were standing there with along with another woman, they all held assualt rifles. "Alright up and-The fuck happened to your binds?!" Troy yelled out as he looked at Kenny and Lee,

"Let's just get them to the pen." The black woman said quickly,

Troy let out a scoff, "Fine. Everyone get the fuck up and no funny business!" Troy said sternly with a hard look. Molly helped Lee get to his feet and everyone else slowly shuffled out of the van. They couldn't help but notice two big things, one being the large amount of food stocks all around the room and two being Carver's voice ringing out across the building over an intercom.

"Arrogant prick." Molly mumbled out,

"You can say that again." Lee said with narrowed eyes as they were marched through the large hardware store as Carver explained that they would need to forgive there old and new friends for any trouble they did and that over time they would be part of the family.

"Look at all the food Lee." Clem said with her eyes bugging out a bit, she'd never seen this much food in one location ever since the start of this apocalypse,

"I know honey." Lee said with a small nod,

"You better not be saying what I think you're saying." Kenny quickly chimed in,

"Just keep walking." Lee said quickly and coldly. Molly looked up at him and could tell Lee was practically fuming at this point and this worried her. Despite his temper they never had to worry about keeping it together so tightly, the last thing she wanted was for him to snap and get killed.

The group continued to march through the warehouse until Tavia took Carlos and brought him to the infirmary of the building. Sarah panicked but Clementine was able to calm her until they reached the pen which turned out to be an outdoor garden area with a campfire in the center. Bonnie and Troy quickly took off everyone's binds, "Better get a good night's rest cause there ain't gonna be any for you tomorrow. Ya'll gonna be working hard." Troy said with a bit of a grin before he and Bonnie exited the pen and shut the sliding door locking them inside.

"Hey guys." A voice said from behind the group. Everyone turned around and saw a indian man who was missing one arm,

"Reggie! Oh god sweetie, I'm so sorry. What did they do to you?" Rebecca said pulling him into a hug,

"This could have been a lot worse, and don't worry this happened a long time after you left." Reggie said motioning to his stump. He looked up and saw Lee and quickly noticed his arm was missing as well, "Hey if we work together we can become a whole person again." He said trying to joke with him, Lee gave him a cold gaze before walking past the group, Lee began to silently look around, "So I'm guessing comedy isn't that guy's strong suit?" Reggie asked softly,

"He's just pissed, I have to talk to him." Molly said as she too walked past Reggie and started heading to Lee,

"Right...okay so here's the thing, I am so close to being let out of here and if nothing happens tonight that will just get that much closer. So if you guys help me out with that I can help you guys once I get out." Reggie said with a hopeful look,

Matthew shuffled past him and headed towards the corner of the room and sat down silently. Reggie looked at him worried, "Is that guy okay? He didn't even seem to hear a word I said."

"He's been through alot." Nick said hanging his head,

"Hang on, where's Luke? And Pete?" Reggie asked looking around,

"Pete's dead." Nick replied with a small break in his voice,

"Christ, Nick i'm so sorry." Reggie said putting his hand on his shoulder,

"It's fine, I'm just gonna...gonna grab some sleep." Nick said as he too walked away towards the back,

"Who's she?" Clem said looking back to a short haired woman who noticed her looking and quickly got up and walked away,

"Okay so she is fucking crazy." Reggie whispered back to Clem, "We found her outside covered in guts and shit, really fucking gross."

"Hey! Could you guys keep it down!" A man shouted from the back,

"Yeah sorry Mike!" Reggie called back, "That's Mike, he's the one who cut off my arm. He's usually a nice guy but a total dick when he's tired."

The gate opened behind them and Carlos was lead back in, Sarah quickly ran over and hugged him tightly. As this happened the group dispersed and everyone headed out to find a place to sleep, much to Rebecca's distaste Carver left her, her own personal bed. Kenny headed over to go and talk to Lee.

Molly and Lee on the other hand were having their own conversation, "Hey, you gonna talk to me?" Molly asked as she watched Lee continue to look for weak points around the room,

"What's there to talk about?" Lee said with a shrug,

"Don't do that," Molly said grabbing his arm and forcing him to turn to her, "I did what I had to so you didn't end up dead."

Lee stared at her for a moment holding a gaze that Molly was unable to decipher as anger or sadness. "I know, it was a shit plan." Lee finally admitted. Molly let out a short exhale of relief, "That fucker hit Clem, I know it was him. I wanted to tear his fucking throat out, still do." Lee said crouching down and sitting on the ground,

Molly sat down next to him, "I know, but that plan was never going to work." Molly said softly,

"Yeah, I just-we can't stay here. This guy, he'll kill us. I'm sure of it." Lee said looking over to her for support,

"You're right, we just need to come up with a plan. One that can get us out of this mess and keep us alive." Molly said with a nod,

Lee let out a nod before putting his arm out and pulling her close to him, letting her head rest on his shoulder, "I'm sorry for how I acted, and thank you for saving me." Lee warmly,

"Some things never change right?" Molly said with a smirk before giving him a small kiss.

At this point Kenny walked over and Lee got to his feet, "Right so you see any way outta here? Me and Clem couldn't find shit."

"No, but we should just stop for the night." Lee said while looking around,

"Are you fucking-" Kenny started to say only for Lee to cut him off,

"Tomorrow they let us out of the pen, we can learn about this building and maybe smuggle something in her to help us. I know we gotta get out of her but we aren't doing it tonight. So take your anger and just swallow it." Lee said roughly,

Kenny stared at him for a minute before take a short breath, "Right, okay. Tomorrow I'll keep an eye out for patrols and shit, let you know what I learn."

"Good." Lee said pushing past him and heading over to Clementine. "Not exactly the ski lodge is it?" He said with a small smirk from behind her,

"No." She said shaking her head before turning back to him,

Lee crouched down, "How are you sweetie." He asked sincerely,

"I'm fine I guess." Clem said with a shrug of her shoulders,

"Clem...I-" Lee said trying to find the right way to phrase this, "Look, I don't mean to be such an ass. I'm just trying to do what's best to keep us safe."

"I know." Clem said with a small smile, "You don't scare me Lee, I know you're just trying to protect me."

"Yeah but I know you see me differently now. I just want you to know that I'm just doing the best I can here Clem and I hope you will see that." Lee said with a weak smile,

Clem rolled her eyes and walked forward hugging Lee tightly, "It's okay Lee, I trust you." She said sincerely before pulling back.

Lee let out a warm smile before standing up, "Guess we should find a spot to sleep huh?"

"Yeah…" Clem said with a small grimace as she saw the wooden bunks with simple pillows on top.

 **Alright so the characters have now entered Howes, Lee is already on board with killing Carver probably more than anyone else right now. Kenny is being a bit more controlled since he has at least one other person thinking like he is and Matthew is emotionally devastated as of now. Needless to say things are already dicey for the group and it's probably gonna get worse before it gets better.**


	14. We Are Strong

Clutzycutie- **Glad you are enjoying the story and I hope you'll like this chapter**

Bicorn- **Lee did indeed pass out in a jewelry store, the officer that Clem killed as a security guard for the store.**

I87- **I already plan on changing the story wildly soon so look forward to that but as for Molly, all I can say is I don't have an immediate plan to kill her so rest easy for now at least.**

ArktosFTW- **Oh poor Matthew, he is considered such a doomed character. Well only time will tell if/when Matthew will bite the big one.**

Smeake- **Thanks as always man, hope you like this chapter.**

WolfKomoki- **Lee is going to change things and I hope you will all like how he does it.**

Guest- **Glad you liked it and hope you like this one.**

Fewpolecat93- **Have an idea for Nick I may put in but I can agree that his off screen death was a bit shit but that's what happens to determinate characters unfortunately.**

Worker72- **I have an interesting idea for Jane and Molly and I can agree that Andrea's comic version was far superior to her TV counterpart. And don't worry Howes will be more explored eventually.**

pokemonashxleaf- **Glad you like the story, hope you like this one.**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

Lee let out a groan as he felt Molly shake him awake, "Hey, Lee. They're here." She whispered out quickly. Lee's eyes sprung open and he quickly got to his feet, as he did this the rolling doors opened, Carver flanked by Troy and a few other men walked inside.

"Everybody line up! Bill's got something to say." Troy snapped out causing everyone to wake up and run over toward the front of the room. Troy's eyes narrowed and he moved over to Clementine who was still asleep. Lee watched him closely as he gave Clem a light kick waking her. Clementine glared back at him coldly, "Get up, Bill's gonna have a word." Troy grumbled out to her before turning back around and walking away.

Clementine reached the rest of the group as Carver began to talk, "There has been increased walker activity along the fences so be mindful if you're outside the fences today. The herd has moved closer as of last night but that doesn't mean it will hit us. Still rest assured that the situation is under control." Carver said firmly as he looked around at the group,

"Herd? How many?" Lee spoke up.

Carver looked over at him with a small raise of his eyebrow, "A few hundred." Carver replied blankly. Carver looked around the group and stopped at Matthew, "Now...I'm sure some of you may be upset about how things went. Well that's all in the past now...some of you are new to our community. Some of you are members who went astray. But know that you can find redemption here, forgiveness, by proving your worth through what will undoubtedly hard work." Carver paused as everyone soaked in his words and then looked back to Lee, "Regardless of age or ailment you will make yourself useful to this community." Carver looked over to Reggie, "Reggie, you are almost back in. Continue along your path and we will welcome you back in with open arms." Just then they all heard Sarah whispering to Clementine from the back of the group. Carver's eyes flared up and he yelled out, "Carlos!"

Everyone looked over to him in shock and some fear, "Yes?" Carlos whimpered out to him,

"Your child seems to be in need of some correction." Carver said glaring over to Sarah,

"I-um-I'm sorry. Sarah, a-apologize to ." Carlos stammered out to his daughter,

"I'm-I'm sorry sir." Sarah whispered out as she let her head drop down,

"No. No. That ain't gonna cut it. I can't have this type of behavior on day one of your reform. You discipline her know Carlos." Carver said with a cold glare, "One good smack to the mouth should do it."

Lee narrowed his eyes as Carlos's eyes went wide, "I-I'm not sure I can...with my hand." Carlos said holding up his broken hand hoping to dissuade him,

"Well that's why you got two." Carver replied as he walked up to Carlos, "And I don't want some pamby thing, I want a good hard smack. If you don't do it, Troy here will and we wouldn't want that. He can be...overzealous, is that the right word?" Carver asked with a small smirk,

"If it means I'll smack the shit outta her, then yeah." Troy replied with a small shrug,

"Hold the fuck up." Lee interjected, "She's just a kid, hell she already apologized."

"That she did, but this here is a lesson." Carver replied, "And I'd urge you to stay silent."

"No, knock this shit off." Lee said with an agitated tone, "Smacking a little girl because she is talking isn't a lesson." Lee said as he took a step forward,

Carver narrowed his eyes and turned fully to Lee, "Think what you like but this is happening. Now since you're new here i'll give you one final warning, talk again and she'll get one too." Carver said pointing his thumb back towards Clem. Lee continued to stare at Carver but kept his mouth shut, Carver gave him a small pleased smile before turning back to Carlos, "Now." He said firmly.

Carlos took a step towards Sarah who was whimpering softly. "It'll only hurt for a second sweetie." He said trying to comfort her,

"Do it." Carver said with a cold tone. Carlos closed his eyes and shot his hand out smacking Sarah across the face and sending her to the ground. Carlos started to kneel down but Carver stopped him, "No, you are done coddling that girl! Let her sit there, think about what she's done. The rest of you, someone will be in to bring you to your assignments."

Troy looked down at Sarah in surprise and let out a small chuckle, "God damn doc, you really smacked the shit outta her."

"Everyone get to work!" Carver snapped out as he turned around and headed out of the pen.

The group sat there for a moment before they were slowly separated. Troy grabbed Kenny, Mike and Matthew and brought them outside the wall to work on the "expansion" this was rather a simple fortification job on the connecting shops. Tavia took Molly and Clementine too the armory and the others split into small groups doing clean up, organization, and working in the greenhouse. Lee was the last one in the pen and to his surprise someone he actually knew walked into the pen, a local from Macon, Vince.

Lee raised and eyebrow and got to his feet, "Vince?" He asked a bit cautiously,

Vince looked Lee over for a minute, "Lee Everett...well god damn, didn't think I'd ever see someone from Macon." He said a bit surprised,

"Last I heard about you, you were being tried for Murder." Lee said letting out a short stretch,

"Funny, I heard the same about you." Vince said with a smirk. The two paused and stared at each other for a moment before Vince continued, "Anyway, you're with me this morning." Vince said returning to the point,

"Doing what?" Lee said with an annoyed tone,

"Taking inventory. Bill brought in a lot of new supplies with you guys, our job is to catalog it all and hand it off to the stockers." Vince explained as he turned around and lead Lee out of the pen. Lee looked around the store in a bit of surprise, most shelves were stocked with food, water or hardware supplies. Vince peered back at him and let out a small smirk, "Surprising right? Food, water, power, when was the last time you had all that?"

"A day ago." Lee replied dryly, "We lived in a ski lodge with a bunch of food and water. We even had a wind turbine but you all had to fuck it up."

Vince went silent and chose not to respond to Lee. While it was true from what he heard that Carver could have handled that situation better being here seemed better than a ski lodge. As they reached the back of the loading dock Lee's eyes narrowed as he saw the multiple boxes of Walter's food supply. Vince let out a little sigh, "Alright so we'll keep this simple. We unload a box find out exactly what and how many cans are inside and mark it down."

"Yeah." Lee said as he walked forward and took one of the boxes down. Vince reached into his pocket and pulled out a small note pad along with a pencil, "First box, beans." Lee said as he began to pull out the cans.

Meanwhile in the armory Molly and Clementine were lead inside and both let out a frown upon seeing Bonnie. "Hey...looks like ya'll are starting your day with me." Bonnie said with an awkward half smile. Molly and Clementine walked over to the workbench where boxes of loose ammo, "Were loading magazines." Bonnie explained as they all picked up a rifle mag, Molly and Clementine began to silently load bullets into the mags, "That's it, you got it." Bonnie said with a warm smile,

Molly and Clementine stay quiet as they worked, Bonnie could feel the tension lingering between them. Finally Molly broke the silence, "Look at you Clem, handling this like a champ." She said with a warm smile,

"Thanks." Clem said with a little smirk, "Christa taught me how to load clips."

Molly let out a smile and nodded but it quickly lowered when they heard Bonnie speak up again. "I suppose I owe y'all an apology...I wasn't exactly truthful when I came up upon you."

"Oh yeah? Do you suppose?" Molly shot back with a low grumble,

"And I was shown a kindness I never would have expected to see. Now folks are dead...and I can't help but think I'm to blame." Bonnie said hanging her head a bit,

"That's because you are." Molly said sharply,

"That's not fair, Bill had to start defending himself, that guy Kenny-" Bonnie said trying to defend herself,

"Kenny was shooting because you had us on our knees at gunpoint and he was torturing Carlos." Molly said with a icy glare,

"Stop." Clementine said firmly, "Carver was the one who was shooting, so it's his fault."

Bonnie let out a slow nod, "Still...I apologize, that's all I can offer right now." Bonnie waited a moment before looking back to Clementine, "So, how was your first night in the pen?"

"You mean my first night in prison?" Clementine replied with a grumble that made Molly let out a smirk,

"It ain't a prison." Bonnie said a bit halfheartedly,

"Tell yourself whatever you need too." Molly said sarcastically as she picked up an empty clip,

"But ya'll need to look around, we got food, water, power...and Bill wasn't always like this." Bonnie said trying to win them over,

"But he is now." Molly said with a small scoff,

"You know I was going to leave with Luke's group, when they all left originally." Bonnie said looking over to Molly who was not all impressed,

"Why didn't you?" Clem asked curiously,

"To be honest, guess I chickened out. I justified myself by saying it's easier to fix something that's broken then just abandoning it." Bonnie replied as she put down a full clip, "I mean take this herd, that's the type of thing that could rip a community apart. Bill though...he keeps things in line. He has a lot figured out."

"Herds come through before?" Clem asked surprised,

"Yeah...Bill always got us through it." Bonnie said with a short nod,

"Yeah probably by holding a loaded gun to your heads the whole time." Molly said with a role of her eyes,

"Regardless of his tactics he's been able to keep us alive and that's what I keep in mind." Bonnie said slightly defensive. Just then Bonnie's radio went off, she picked it up, "Bonnie here, what's up?"

"That girl, Clementine? Bill wants her up in the greenhouse." Tavia replied,

"Alright, she'll be ready when you get here." Bonnie replied firmly, "You taking Molly too?"

"No just the girl." Tavia answered back, "I'll be there in a second."

Bonnie put down her radio and walked over to a rack, "Almost forgot, I found this back at the lodge, thought you'd look cute in it." Bonnie said with a smirk as she passed over a puffy blue jacket with a rainbow on it.

Clementine put it on and while feeling warm the style really didn't fit her. She looked up at Bonnie with a uncomfortable face, "It's kinda ugly actually."

"Really? I thought it looked nice." Bonnie said with a small frown,

Molly let out a little laugh and walked over to Clem, "Nice one kid, tell it how it is." She said with a smirk, "Still, warmer than your shirt."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Clementine said with a little smile as Tavia walked in. Molly gave her a small wave goodbye as she lead her out. Bonnie and Molly both went back to work but they worked in silence as Molly clearly didn't want to talk to Bonnie in the slightest.

Meanwhile Vince was now curious about his old hometown and tried to talk to Lee, "So, did you ever head back to Macon after you got loose?"

"I did." Lee said as he put some already recorded cans away,

"And? How was it?" Vince asked as he knelt down and began to help him,

"How do you think?" Lee asked with a sarcastic tone,

"What about your folks? Your brother?" Vince asked a bit concerned. Lee stared at him for a moment, "Sorry, my brother was dead too." Vince said with a sullen voice,

Lee waited a moment before letting out a small exhale, "They died early on, I had to put my brother down myself." Lee said thinking back to that day,

"Sorry man, didn't mean to dredge up old wounds." Vince said sincerely,

Lee waited a minute before looking back up at him, "I don't get it, how the hell do you people live under a guy like that?"

Vince let out a small shrug, "We just do, you toe the line and it works out fine for us."

"Toe the line?" Lee said with an almost disgusted voice, "You can't make people live like that, in fear."

"I know it sucks, hell I've been in the pen before but...I mean we are so much better off than other people. Hell from what I hear you guys didn't have walls, just beans and a lodge." Vince replied,

"We were still better off, we were surviving with one another not under one." Lee replied firmly,

"Can't work that way, you need a leader." Vince said shaking his head,

"I was in charge but I didn't make my decisions and force the others to agree upon threat." Lee said while furrowing his brow, "You can't expect to make it in this world if you just force people to do what you want."

Vince took a moment and let out a small nod, "I don't know man, Carver used to be a good guy. Then everything happened with Rebecca and then the group left after stealing some supplies. Maybe now that he's back he'll come back."

Lee slowly shook his head, "You don't come back from the line he chose to cross, trust me." Vince stared at Lee for a moment before he went back to his work.

Vince chose to stay quiet as he and Lee continued to work. After almost two more hours of sorting and cataloging Vince's radio went off, "Vince, is that fella Lee still with you?" Carver's voice asked,

Lee looked over with a raised eyebrow as Vince picked up the radio, "Yeah we're just about done sorting and cataloging the new supplies." He replied quickly,

"Good, I want you to send him up to the roof. I want to have a chat with him." Carver replied eerily calm,

Vince looked over to Lee a bit surprised before going back to the radio, "Yeah, alright, I'll, uh, I'll send him up right now."

"Good." Carver replied before quickly ending his conversation. Vince and Lee turned around and he lead him to a closed of stairwell that lead to the roof. Vince gave him a small shrug before heading back towards the loading dock leaving Lee alone.

Lee opened the door and saw Clementine slowly making her way down the stairs, "Clem?" Lee said quickly as he could see a look on her face, "You okay sweetie?"

"He killed him." Clementine said blankly,

"Who killed who?" Lee asked kneeling down,

"Carver...he, he just killed Reggie. He pushed him off the roof." Clementine said in shock, "He said he was weak, and that he had no place in this world."

Lee pulled her into a hug, "It's alright, honey." He said trying to calm her,

"I, I have to go. I'm suppose to go and bring supplies to Kenny and Matthew." Clem said pulling away from the hug,

"Alright." Lee said standing back up, "We'll talk later."

"Yeah." Clementine said as she walked out of the room. Lee watched her with a concerned look as she seemed almost to be in shock. Lee began to walk up the stairs and after a minute he reached the roof where he saw Carver finishing a conversation with Sarah.

Carver looked back and saw Lee causing him to let out a small smirk, "Run along Sarah, I've gotta talk to Lee for a minute." Carver said as he gave Sarah a pat on the back,

"Yessir." Sarah said quickly before running to the stairs and leaving the pair on the roof,

"You wanted to talk to me?" Lee said watching him closely,

"C'mere for a minute." Carver said waving his hand over. Lee walked over cautiously to Carver who was standing at the edge of the roof. Lee looked down and saw Reggie's body which laid in a pool of blood. Lee raised his eyebrows in some shock as he saw Reggie's body was broken and collapsed in on itself, "I wanted to have you see this, I wanted you to see what I did but more importantly I want you to understand why I did this." Carver said as he rested his hands on his waste,

"You want me to understand why you killed this man?" Lee said shaking his head and backing away from the edge,

"Yes." Carver said now crossing his arms,

"Why?" Lee asked as he looked Carver dead in the eyes,

"I see something in you, I can see why people down there look to you." Carver said as he looked up and down the man, "Despite you ailment, you are strong, stronger than many." Lee went completely silent as he was now confused at what Carver was playing at, "Now you may not believe this but I liked Reggie, he was a funny guy that kept things light. That's important in these days, depression can sink in easily in this hard times. But he was weak and not because he was maimed, hell if that were true you'd never had made it here in the first place. He was weak of spirit, character. That is something I can not allow, not now."

"You killed him because he was weak? That sounds like an excuse." Lee replied,

"I can assure you it is not. That is one of the best reasons we have nowadays. Reggie's incompetence put us at risk...killing one to save many is part of survival. It's one of the tougher decisions that a weaker person couldn't make, that's why it falls to us to lead them to safety." Carver said with a smirk,

Lee narrowed his eyes, "A weaker person? There are no weak people, or strong people. There's just us and the dead, you're either alive or you're dead." He said with a icy tone,

Carver let out a chuckle, "Even you don't believe that." Carver looked around before looking back to Lee, "Let me ask you this, what am I to you?"

"A killer, a psychopath." Lee replied quickly,

"Sure," Carver said with a small shrug of his shoulders, "If I had to bet you'd kill me right now and do you know why you'd do that?" Carver said looking directly at Lee, "Because I am weak in your eyes, I am someone who is a threat to the group because they aren't strong enough." Lee diverted his eyes causing Carver to let out a grin, "See you know it's true, being weak is a matter of opinion, you just need to change yours."

"What the hell do you want?" Lee shot out,

Carver ignored his question and continued, "While I wish things were different, it's not. They are weak and we are strong. It's our duty to lead them to safety, and weed out the ones who are undeserving."

Lee clenched his fist and took a step to Carver, "I'm going to kill you. Not because you're weak, no, I'm going to because you don't deserve to be drawing breath."

"And there it is, that's all the proof I need. Do you think anyone down there who'd have the balls to say to me?" Carver took a step forward now mere inches away from Lee's face, "We're more alike than you think In fact, I think you realize that but you're just not comfortable with it yet. I've seen what you've accomplished and I don't just mean surviving with you injury." Carver took a step away, "Clementine, you've done a fine job of raising her."

"It wasn't just me," Lee replied coldly, "It was a lot of people, people who looked out for each other not just for himself."

Carver shook his head and smirked, "You can tell yourself that but we both know the truth, I saw it back in the lodge. You were scared, but you kept your nerve, looked me in the eye. Only other person that did that was her wasn't too big of a jump to see where she learned it from. People like us are needed, to teach the next generation how to be strong enough to make it in this world. That's the way i'll teach my child." Carver said with a sternly look. Lee and Carver stared at each other for a few moments almost sizing each other up until Carver continued, "The herd that's coming, that's not what keeps me up at night. What keeps me up is worrying about what would happen if something were to happen to me. If no one strong enough is here to pick it up after me, with you around I have hope that not all is lost."

"So that's what you wanted?" Lee asked with a scoff, "You want to tell me that you believe I could take control when you die."

"Lee you need to look at the big picture, this place isn't for me. It's for us, the people. There needs to be a strong, willing leader her to protect these folks and do the tough thing with a collected mind." Carver said thoughtfully, "Now while you think on that, Vince still needs you at the loading dock." Lee watched him for a minute before turning around and heading back down the stairs.

 **Alright hope you all enjoyed this chapter, sorry for the delay on it. I also hope you are enjoying Carver and Lee's relationship, it's a bit based around the Carver and Clem one but I feel this one will have a better back and forth. Anyway looking forward to your reviews and thoughts on the relationships built this chapter.**


	15. The Plan

Darknessarising- **Thanks**

Guest- **Hope you enjoy this chapter as well**

Fewpolecat93- **Vince is going to be involved in this story as are all the 400 days characters, can't tell you how or when but they'll be around. Also I have a plan for Carver's death that may or may not involve Kenny so…**

Clutzycutie- **Alright so first, glad you liked the Carver and Lee convo I enjoyed writing it. Second in reference to Sarah as much as it does suck to see her go through what she does maybe if she had been eased into the world before she would have been alright. As much as I hate to say it the only thing that could have saved her at that point was Carvers harshness. And lastly I never liked how Bonnie got like a free pass as soon as we were put into Carver's camp so I wanted to make Molly treat her harshly because she deserves it.**

Smeake- **Thanks as always man**

Darksawr- **Yes Shel will be in this story eventually but I can't tell you how and why, so just read on.**

EroSlackerMira- **The way I see it, Carver never had enough time to be built up and thus we are just stuck with a flash of what could have been an awesome villain. As for Lee and Carver they are having a more original partnership, they both aren't really against each other, Carver likes Lee and feels he could be good man to work with him.**

Guest- **Sorry for the wait pal.**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

Clementine walked through the hardware stores main room looking for Bonnie, she spotted her right near the fire escape of the building, "Hey Clem, over here." Bonnie said while waving her over, "So you're just gonna be running some nails to the boys outside, real simple work." Bonnie said as she handed her a large orange bucket. She paused as she watched Clementine for a moment, "What's wrong?"

"Reggie...Reggie's dead. Carver killed him." Clementine replied with a tremble in her voice,

"What?!" Bonnie exclaimed in shock,

"He just pushed him off the roof," Clementine said with a drop in her voice,

"Maybe he...maybe you just…" Bonnie said trying to come up with a reason for Bill's innocence but after she looked at Clem's face she stopped, "Here you take these nails down to those boys and then you come right back here to me." Bonnie said walking over to the fire door and opening, "Go on you'll be fine." She said with a nod before looking up to the roof of the comic shop next door, "Troy, Clem's just gonna take them boys some supplies real quick!"

"Fine." Troy said as Clementine walked outside and looked to her right only to see Reggie's body through the wire fence, "Hey that's not of your concern girl!" Troy barked out causing Clem to quickly turn around,

Clementine walked towards the far shop while walkers banged on the wooden fences to her right, she looked at them concerned noticing that even with just a few walkers hitting on them they were shaking violently. She entered the shop just as Kenny grabbed Mike and forced him against a wall, "Fuck this! If they want this done so bad tell them to do it themselves!" Kenny shouted at Mike while pressing his arm into his neck,

"Kenny, calm down man." Matthew said quickly,

"Get your fucking hands off me!" Mike shouted back angrily,

"No, they aren't gonna fucking force us to do shit Matt." Kenny said with narrowed eyes,

"I said get your hands off me!" Mike said struggling against Kenny's grasp,

"Or what? You gonna go tell on me?" Kenny replied pressing his arm harder,

"Guys stop fighting, it isn't worth it!" Matthew said quickly as Clementine came running over to them,

"I'm trying to help you asshole!" Mike said while pushing back against him,

"You're one of them ain't cha!" Kenny exclaimed almost madly,

"Reggie's dead! Carver killed him!" Clementine shouted causing all three men to look over shock and confused,

"What? Are you-are you sure?" Mike asked as Kenny let him go.

Just then Mike's body that was pressed up against a poorly covered window pulled one of the plywood barricades down. Walkers, who had already been beating against the window, shattered the glass and started to pull themselves into the building, "Fuck! Grab a weapon!" Kenny commanded as he picked up a hammer and readied it.

Five walkers pulled themselves through the window and slowly separated themselves, going after different targets. Clementine picked up a wooden board and started to slam it onto the head of the walker pursuing her. She continued to back up hoping the one of her hits would kill the walker, yet it continued to lumber after her with no hesitation. Finally she felt the wall on her back and started looking for an escape rout.

She immediately dove behind a toppled shelf and started to push her way towards the other side as the walker followed closely behind. She reached the end of the shelf, and panicked as she saw pieces of metal keeping her trapped behind it. She mustered all her strength and was able to push the shelf out of the way long enough to escape. As it fell back into place, a piece of metal impaled the walker's skull killing it.

She looked to her right and saw Matthew holding a sledgehammer while three walkers lumbered towards him, "Clem, get outta here!" He yelled as he swung hitting a walker in the leg snapping it in two and sending it to the ground,

Clementine ran over to the back of the store and grabbed hold of a ladder, "Matthew move!" She shouted out. Matthew looked back at her and jumped back while Clementine threw the ladder down bringing another walker down to the ground. Just then Troy kicked open the door to the shop and started taking shots at the walkers. He Ak-47 barked wildly as he took precise head shots killing each of the walkers with ease. A bullet ripped through a walkers skull and flew into Matthew's shoulder sending him to the ground. "Matthew!" Clementine exclaimed and ran over to him,

"Alright what the fuck is going on in here!" Troy shouted out with fury lingering off each word,

Kenny looked over at Mike and waited for him to rat him out about the fight. Mike took a breath and looked up at Troy, "Nothing, barricade came loose. We were just trying to survive."

Troy looked over to Kenny who let out a small smile that quickly disappeared, "Yeah, that'd be the long and short of it."

Troy watched the two of them for a moment before narrowing his eyes, "Stop fucking around, i'm staying here for the rest of your shift, make sure you're doing your fucking job."

"You shot Matthew!" Clementine shouted as she pressed her hand against his wound while he let out pained groans,

"What the fuck am I supposed to do about that?" Troy said with an unconcerned look,

"Help him!" Kenny shouted out,

"Take him to Carlos, I sure as shit ain't helping him." Troy said before looking back to Kenny and Mike, "Get the fuck back to work, you need to cover this window back up!"

Matthew got to his feet, "It's okay Clem, I'll go in a minute, you just head back." Matthew said taking some deep breaths while he held his wound. Clementine stared at him for a moment unsure what to do, "It's alright Clem, you go on. You don't need to be out here where it's not safe."

Clementine gave a small nod and slowly walked out of the shop. As she walked back towards the hardware store she passed a comic shop and without warning the door swung open. Before she could react a man jumped out and grabbed her, putting one arm around her and the other over her mouth pulling her inside. She struggled against the man as he pulled her deeper into the store and finally bit his hand, "Ow! Clem, stop! Relax it's me!" Luke exclaimed as he dropped her,

"Luke?!" Clementine exclaimed as she turned around,

Luke shook his hand in pain, "Yes...damn you bit the hell outta me." Luke said as he looked at his finger,

Clementine reached out and hugged him quickly, "I was worried, we all were."

Luke let out a smirk, "Awe, it's good to see you too kid." Luke took a second to gather his thoughts then said, "Alright look I followed ya'll best I could, I haven't slept since ya'll got nabbed and...well this is the first chance I got to talk to somebody. They're everywhere, they got guards watching everything." Luke paused and shush Clem as he saw Matthew walking past the door heading back to the hardware store. "We got a herd of lurkers just south of us, biggest one i've seen around these parts."

"Lee asked about that when Carver mentioned it, he said it's supposed to be a few hundred." Clementine said with a bit of worry in her voice, "He said it might pass us."

"Yeah well I heard that too but that ain't happening. It's gonna hit this place, could be today or it could be tomorrow but it's coming." Luke said as he peered out the window,

"Are you...are you feeling okay?" Clementine asked as she looked at Luke's pale face,

"No- No I mean yeah, sorry I could just use some sleep is all. Hard to rest when you're worried about a lurker jumping you but i'm fine." Luke said with a reassuring smile,

"This seems dangerous…" Clementine added nervously,

"Well yeah, the whole situations is dangerous but don't worry I got a plan. Now I know that they all communicate over radios, they tell someone what they are doing at all times. So if I can get one I can listen and watch for an opening and when I see one I come and spring you guys." Luke said quickly, "Only problem is, I don't have a radio."

"I-I can get you one, I think." Clementine said quickly,

"Okay, okay good. Now we have to be smart and safe about this, no one can know. Can you do that?" Luke asked kneeling down,

"Yes I-" Clementine started to say,

"Hey Girl! Where the fuck are you hiding!" Troy shouted out from just outside,

"Go quick, get outta here." Luke said quickly.

Clementine nodded and ran out of the door and immediately saw Troy storming over to her, "What the hell were you doing in there missy?"

"I was...looking at comics." Clementine said with her best convincing face,

Troy narrowed his eyes and stared at her, "Get back inside, and don't let me catch you fooling around again."

"Yessir." Clementine said quickly before running back to the hardware store.

Nearly another hour past as everyone finished up their first work day. The only good thing about the winter was the sun sets early letting everyone have shorter work days. Lee was the last to enter the pen, "God there you are." Molly said jumping out of her seat as Vince shut the door behind him,

"Talk to you later Vince." Lee said with a nod,

"Yeah, sorry about the pen." Vince said with a frown before turning back and walking away.

Lee turned back to Molly and pulled her into a hug, "You okay?"

"Just fine, you'd be proud of me I controlled myself and didn't slap the chick they paired me with today." She said with a playful smile,

Lee let out a little laugh, "That's good, glad to hear it." Lee pulled back from Molly and looked at the group all sitting at the fire, "What's going on?"

"Everyone's having a debate on what's our best chance to get out of here." Molly said with a frown, "And of course they're fighting about it, what else is new."

Lee let out a sigh, "Guess I should head over and try to handle this." He said as he started to walk over to the fire pit,

Kenny looked up at Lee and let out a smile before nodding, "Glad to have you back pal, now you can help me talk some sense into these folks."

"What are you trying to talk them into?" Lee said with an unimpressed look as he took a seat next to him, Clementine gave him a small smile from just across the pit,

"He's trying to talk us into killing ourselves." Rebecca said with a cold gaze,

"What is it with you?" Kenny said with an icy tone,

"Cool it, what are you trying to plan Ken?" Lee said firmly,

"He want's to draw the herd right to the door." Mike said with an unsure look, "I just can't figure out why."

"Because it'll be fucking chaos here when it hits. No one will be paying attention to us." Kenny retorted,

"I don't know Ken, attention or not walking out of here while a herd is surrounding the building is going to be tough." Lee said a bit dismissively,

"Thank you, see Kenny. We can't just walk out the front door, we'll be torn apart." Rebecca said a bit smugly,

"Well unless we cover ourselves." Lee said causing everyone to look over at him, even Jane looked over at him with a surprised look,

"What do you mean cover ourselves?" Nick asked confused,

"I've done it once before in Savannah, you get a walker and cut it open. Cover yourself with it's blood, makes you invisible to walkers, they can't tell the difference." Lee explained as Jane stood up and walked over to the group,

"That's bullshit, no way that works." Mike said reluctantly,

"No he's right, as long as you don't panic and you coat yourself right you'll be perfectly fine." Jane butted in,

"I don't know Kenny it sounds dangerous." Sarita said timidly,

"Dangerous?" Kenny said with a scoff, "Of course it's dangerous, every fucking thing we do is dangerous!"

"Kenny, do not speak to me that way." Sarita said with narrowed eyes,

Kenny took a short breath, "Okay, Okay. Sorry."

Suddenly Clementine spoke up, "Maybe Luke could help us...he's outside. He wants a radio to keep an eye on the guards." Clementine explained quickly,

Rebecca let out a relied smile then turned back to Lee, "Now that's a plan I can vote for."

Mike looked down at Clem a bit surprised, "Huh, he didn't mention he met with you. He flagged us down after Troy headed back inside."

"Doesn't matter, Luke knows what he's doing. He can watch the guards then give us a chance to escape safely." Nick said confidently,

Carlos slowly walked over to the group, "I've done what I can for Matthew, the bullet is lodged in his shoulder, I was able to stop the bleeding but I can not remove it." Carlos said as he wiped his hands clean from blood,

"What does that mean?" Kenny asked with an annoyed tone,

"It means he'll survive but his arm is not going to be easy for him to use now." Carlos replied with a frown,

"Shit." Kenny said while shaking his head. Kenny let out a deep sigh then sat up straight, "Back to the point, we don't know when Luke will be able to help us, best shot is slipping out of here with the herd."

"I mean it really isn't that hard to control these things, remember back in Crawford with the bells?" Molly said making Kenny smile,

"Yeah got every fucker on the block to head right to ya." Kenny said with a nod,

"Don't know if you noticed but there ain't no bells here." Nick said with a scoff,

"Yeah no shit kid but what I'm getting at is we just need something loud to make sure they hit this place." Kenny quickly shot back,

Sarita thought for a moment then turned to Kenny, "Well Carver's PA system seems quite loud."

"And there are speakers for the outside of the building.' Mike added on,

While the group began to hash out the plan of using the PA Molly leaned over to Lee, "Hey what are you doing, people are kinda expecting your input here."

"I'm thinking." Lee replied quietly as he ran his hand along his chin,

"Controls are in his office, that much is clear." Jane said with a shrug to the group,

"It's all controlled from there, all you need to do is flip a switch to turn it on." Rebecca explained halfheartedly,

"Well that's perfect! We just need to get into his office, why didn't you say so sooner." Kenny said with a grin,

"Because it's a idiotic plan. We need to get a radio to Luke and just wait." Rebecca said firmly,

"You're real difficult to work with sometimes." Kenny said coldly,

"Kenny." Sarita butted in quickly,

Finally Lee spoke up, "We need to do both." Everyone turned to him, "Waiting here for an opening could cost us our lives, Reggie's proof of that. But just running out of the pen with now eye on the outside won't work either, we need Luke to watch for us then spring us once the herd distracts the rest. We slip out the back before the herd even circles the building." Lee explained,

"Now that plan I can get behind." Jane said with a nod,

"Lee hold up, Luke is in no position to help us, you want to put your faith in a man who just left us when times got tough?" Kenny said shaking his head,

"Ken we are going to need to turn that speaker on to draw the herd in, now how would you suggest we do that from inside the pen?" Kenny paused before lowering his head, "Right, we have a man on the outside, we need Luke to bring the herd in and spring us, it's the only way."

"But the walkers, they could still kill us." Nick said with a worried tone,

"Not if we cover ourselves, we just have to stay calm." Lee said easily,

"Gotta say you should listen to the man, if everyone keeps it together and doesn't clump up we can push right through them." Jane said crossing her arms,

"Fine, what the hell are we waiting for. Let's go get the stupid radio." Kenny said jumping to his feet,

"How are you going to get into the stockroom, no way to open the gate." Rebecca said dismissively,

"I actually I got that covered." Molly said walking over to the corner of the pen. She stopped and looked up the side of the building where half a ladder hung, "Just need one of you to give me a boost."

"Wait, you should send the kid." Jane said pointing her thumb to Clem,

"What? Why?" Molly said dismissively,

"I don't doubt that your quick but she's less likely to be seen. Besides if she gets caught Bill probably won't kill her, you...I'm pretty sure you'll just get shot." Jane said crossing her arms,

Molly and Clem both looked over to Lee waiting for him to make a call for who was being sent out to grab the radio.

 **Alright I am back, sorry that this chapter took so long but better late than never right? Hope you are liking the build up, I realize I am sticking to the story a decent amount but I hope you are liking the original scenes I am putting in here and there. Also vote time! That's right, who do you think Lee should send out for the radio Clem or Molly? Click on my name and vote on the poll at the top of my homepage!**


	16. A Lesson

CosmicArmor- **Huh, that's a bit of a surprise. I get that Molly won't be everyone's favorite character but i'm glad that the relationship didn't turn you off the story. As for Jane, I do not in anyway like her but I won't just ignore her character because of that. Anyway hope you like this chapter as well.**

EroSlackerMicha- **Yeah Kenny can be a dick sometimes but not everyone in the world is a nice guy. Despite his gruff personality he is a good guy at heart so I always looked past that. In the end Carver took a step too far and lost himself, I bet he was a good guy but the burden of leadership changes people. Plus Troy was a bully who got more power turning him into a huge asshole.**

Guest- **Lee is of course a protective father figure for Clem so no doubt he wouldn't want to send her out but you'll see what happens soon enough.**

Guest- **Haha, yet another one who hates Jane. I get it, I was always Kenny over Jane. Yet I still think I can develop some cool things with her despite her being my least favorite.**

Fewpolecat93- **Right so Matthew turning into another "Sarah" always confused me, I never get why people thought that would happen. Matthew lost Walter sure and it hurts him hard but he has the development to handle his feelings while Sarah was such a sheltered kid who didn't really understand lost.**

Worker72- **Carver was a guy who desired control and started to lose it, when that happened he over acted and lost himself thus marking himself for death eventually. As for Lee and Clem this whole thing is going to be a relationship changer for them, Lee is going to learn that she really had grown.**

ArktosFTW- **Glad you liked the last two chapters and as for this vote event...who knows what will happen, well you will by the end of this chapter. Hope you like it.**

FocUs24- **Glad you like the story and dang how evil would that be for Carver to take out Molly for Lee's actions, yet you never know this could happen so just read on.**

Windyrat- **I have a plan for the story but it won't go the season 3 way. I may add the characters eventually but the whole story and setting of season three won't happen in this story, sorry.**

* * *

 **Enjoy, based off votes Clem will go. She won 68% to 32%**

Lee looked between the two torn, the woman Jane had a point Clementine, if caught, would probably not be killed but who knows what could happen. On the other hand Molly was trained, she had been doing stuff like this since before they met, he just couldn't decide. Clementine spoke up, "Lee let me go, I can do it."

Lee looked at her weakly, "Clem...it's dangerous."

"Yeah it is but Carver won't kill me if I get caught, Molly should stay here, it's the right thing to do." Clementine said firmly,

Molly looked over at Lee who looked at Clem a bit agreeingly, "Whoa, you aren't seriously thinking of sending her, are you? She's just a kid." Molly said growing agitated,

"I know." Lee said rubbing his brow,

"Lee." Kenny said from behind him, "Let her go, she's just as capable...hell maybe even more capable than the rest of us." Kenny said with a warm smile to Clem,

Lee lowered his head and walked over to Clem. He knelt down and put his hand on her shoulder, "Clementine can you do this?" He asked watching her closely,

"Lee, i'm the only one who can do it safely." Clementine replied earnestly, "Jane's right, Molly will be killed if she's caught. I won't, you can trust me."

Lee closed his eyes and slowly nodded, "Okay." He whispered out then stood up, "Alright Clementine is gonna do this."

"Lee! What are you thinking?!" Molly exclaimed,

"Ssh!" Jane said quickly, "For god sakes if you don't keep your mouth shut no one is gonna do this." Jane then turned towards Mike, "Now go give her a boost."

Molly looked back to Lee bewildered, "Lee, you can't be serious here. You know I can do this, this is no job for a kid." Lee raised his head and looked past her causing her to turn around only to see Clementine starting to climb the ladder. She narrowed her eyes and turned around pushing past Lee and heading towards the fire pit.

Jane walked over to Lee and glanced over to Molly, "Harsh, but you made the smart choice. The kids got it." She said in some support then headed back to her bed,

Kenny walked over next and rest his hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry pal, she'll be fine." Lee let out a short but rather weak nod before heading back to the fire pit. He sat down across from Molly not really making eye contact, as he could feel the tension lingering between them.

Meanwhile with Clementine, she got up to the room and let out a little smirk. Despite being pretty worried she was happy to have the support from not only Kenny but Lee as well. She moved forward slowly constantly looking around for anyone on patrol. As she past the greenhouse she stopped dead in her tracks, a patrol guard began walking towards the edge of the roof. Clementine pulled back and slowly circled around the greenhouse and she spotted a sunroof window, she moved over to and quietly popped it open.

Clementine let out a slow sigh, "Now or never I guess." She whispered to herself then pulled herself in and landed on a pallet of boxes. She looked around and saw no one in the area, she began to carefully climb down the side of the large shelving. As she got about halfway she heard two voices talking and coming closer to her. Clementine quickly let go of the edge and fell to the floor, she looked around just as Vince and Tavia rounded the corner. She dove behind some boxes and went silent.

"I'm just saying Vince, holding this many people in the pen is just stupid. I mean they almost outnumber us." Tavia said as she stopped and reached into her pocket for a cigarette,

Vince crossed his arms and shrugged, "I don't know, they seem nice enough but Bill is keeping them prisoner, what would you do?"

"Probably try to escape, or kill Bill." Tavia admitted as she lit the cigarette with a match, "You want one?"

"Nah, gave it up. Besides those could be the last ones in the world for all we know, why get hooked all over again." Vince said with a smirk,

Clementine slowly peeked over the boxes she hid behind and looked around, she saw the walkie talkie charging bank and slowly began to move towards it. "Whatever you say buddy, I'm just living it up. I got a bad feeling about this herd." Tavia said shaking her head. Vince let out a chuckle that ended quickly as he saw Clem's hat poking over the boxes, "You okay?" Tavia asked with a raised eyebrow at his shift in personality,

"Fine." Vince said quickly, "I'm just...with you on that, whole things got me on edge." Vince said returning his attention back to Tavia. Vince mind was racing knowing that Tavia would catch Clem if she so much as turned around. Suddenly an idea popped into his head, he let out a long annoyed sigh, "Hey since I saved you a cigarette could you do me a huge favor?" Vince asked with a grin,

"I'm not sure denying my offer makes me owe you one." Tavia said with a smirk,

"Please Tavia, I was suppose to make sure the greenhouse was locked up. Could you just check for me?" Vince begged,

Tavia rolled her eyes, "Fine, fine, lazy prick." She said jokingly as she headed out of the room. Vince watched as she walked away and as soon as she was out of sight he ran over to Clementine.

Clementine froze in fear as she heard him walking over to her and she shakily looked up as Vince towered over her, "Kid what the hell are you doing out here? Do you fucking know what would happen if they caught you?" Vince hissed out to her,

"I'm-I'm sorry sir." Clementine whimpered out,

"Look just follow me, I'll lead you back to the pen. I don't want anything to happen to you guys so just...just don't do this again, alright?" Vince said quickly,

"Y-you're not going to tell on me?" Clementine asked a bit surprised,

"No, fuck knows what Bill would do. Just come on." Vince said quickly leading her along. Vince slowly moved through the building checking around for patrols and to his and Clem's luck he saw no one. He reached the gate and began to unlock it, he pulled it open causing Lee and Molly to look over. Vince put his hand on Clem's back and pushed her inside as Lee got up and ran over, "Lee I don't know if you knew she was outside or not and I don't really want to know. Just listen to me, if you or anyone else gets caught outside the pen after dark things will go very bad." Vince stared at Lee's stoic face for a few moments then he let out a sigh, "Just try to not get yourselves killed." Vince said as he began to close the rolling door.

As he locked it up and began to walk away Lee called out, "Vince, you gonna tell anyone?"

Vince looked back at him, "Hell no, far as I'm concerned none of you ever left this pen." He said before heading back towards the main room.

Lee let out a slow exhale and looked down at Clem, "You alright sweet pea?"

"Yeah." She said with a small nod, "He made another lady leave before leading me back here, no one knows but him. I'm sorry I got caught Lee." Clementine said lowering her head,

"It's alright, that doesn't matter." Lee said kneeling down and pulling her into a hug,

As the pair hugged Kenny came walking over, "Hey did you get the radio?"

Lee stood up, "She got caught, thank god Vince was the one who found her. He isn't gonna tell a soul." Lee said while rubbing the back of his neck, "Guess we'll have to try tomorrow, maybe lift one off someone."

Kenny let out a grin as he looked at Clem, "Atta, girl." He said warmly,

Lee looked down at Clem and saw a small radio in her hand, "What the fuck?" He said confused,

"Swear." Clementine said with a smile,

"Sorry." Lee said smirking, "But how?"

"I grabbed one before Vince found me, he doesn't know." Clementine said confidently,

"Good job, one step closer to getting the fuck outta here." Kenny said with wide smile, "C'mon should grab some shut eye, we got a long day ahead of us." He added on as he turned around and started heading towards the bunks.

Clementine gave Lee a final smile before heading off to the beds as well. Lee slowly followed lagging behind. As they past the fire pit he headed over and sat down next to Molly, "So, how bad did I fuck up?" He asked softly,

Molly looked up at him with a mixture of anger and sadness, "If it were anyone else I'd say pretty bad but since it's you I should just expect this type of asshole." She said crossing her arms and leaning forward,

"I'm sorry, but Jane had a point. If you were caught who knows how it could have went down. I didn't want to take that chance." Lee said moving his hand over to hers.

Molly didn't move her hand away but she didn't take hold of his hand in return, "Lee I can handle myself, I don't need you putting others in danger because you're worried about me. For fuck sakes you put Clem at risk." She said almost confused, "I don't know why you would do that."

Lee let out a low sigh and slowly looked around making sure Clem was out of earshot, "I love Clementine, but she...doesn't need me. She's capable, she's independent, I saw it immediately at lodge. I don't know what happened to her in the past year but she grew up. I-I want her to be safe but like Kenny said she's capable." Lee said lowly,

"What don't you think I'm capable?" Molly asked with raised eyebrows,

"Of course I do, you're just...you're all I got. I don't want anything to happen to you...I think it'd kill me." Lee said with a small break in his voice,

Molly's eyes softened, she leaned in and lifted Lee's head before kissing him softly, "Listen to me, I'm not going anywhere. Nothing is going to happen to me, me and you we're in this together. And I know you think Clem doesn't need you anymore but that is such bullshit. You mean the world to that girl, hell I bet she did that to impress you." She said with a little smirk,

Lee's lips slowly curled into a smile as Molly rested her head on his shoulder. "Man, what would I do without you to keep me together?" He said resting his head on hers,

"Probably fall straight the fuck apart." Molly said with a grin. Lee let out a low chuckle as they sat together. After a few more minutes Molly got up, "Come on, better get some sleep." She said, causing Lee to nod in response and follow her over to the beds.

Early the next morning half the group was gathered around at the table. Lee, Mike, Kenny, Jane, Rebecca, Clem and Sarah were getting ready to put the final part of their plan in motion. "Okay with Molly already working with the others that means we need to figure out who takes the radio to Luke." Lee said from the head of the table they surrounded,

"Well I can take it." Mike said raising his hand, "I'll get it done no problem."

"I don't know about that, I think Clem should take it." Kenny said crossing his arms,

"What? Why?" Mike asked confused,

"Ken...I don't really see why she should, Mike seems pretty capable." Lee said dismissively,

"Thank you, I mean what reason do you have for a kid to do this?" Mike said crossing his arms,

"There is a million reasons! She's smart, she's small, she can hide, she's the one who got us the damn radio in the first place! And nothing against you Mike but I don't know you from Adam." Kenny said frowning,

"Fine if you don't trust me then let Lee take it." Mike said pointing his thumb over,

"Lee could do it." Clementine said with a nod,

Kenny put his hands on his hips and looked over at Lee, "Do I really have to say it?" He said peering to Lee's stump,

"Oh come on, it's just a radio. He can do just fine with one arm." Mike said firmly,

"Kenny what the fuck man?" Lee said annoyed,

"Look it ain't nothing personal pal, it's just this radio is our best shot to get out of here. All i'm saying is we should make sure our chances to get it to Luke the best we got." Kenny said easily, "And if we want that we give it to Clem." Kenny said firmly,

"Kenny I can handle this." Lee said grabbing the radio,

"Lee you gotta listen to me on this, you ain't fit to be-" Kenny started to say,

"This is happening, swallow it." Lee said coldly as he slipped the radio into his pocket,

Kenny narrowed his eyes, "Fine, just don't fuck this up."

Lee looked down to Clem, "Alright Clem, where is the meet up?"

"It's in the comic store next door." Clem replied, "Luke is hiding in the back."

Just as she said that the rolling doors to the pen opened up, Tavia flanked by two other men walked inside and looked over at the group, "Alright everyone time to get a move on. Daylight's burnin, you got to sleep in all things considered."

"Where's my dad?" Sarah asked timidly,

"He's where the rest of you are, at work." Tavia replied then she looked around, "Jane, Rebecca, Sarah, if you got to piss you do it now. You aren't going to have any time today. Now follow me." She said leading the three of them out,

"What about us?" Kenny asked,

"Troy is coming for the rest of you in a minute." She replied as she began to close the door.

As she closed the door and walked away Lee turned back to Kenny, Mike and Clem, "Look we all know that that herd is coming soon, it could hit tonight so I need to make sure you are all ready if that happens."

"Of course were fucking ready." Kenny said firmly.

Mike and Clem both gave a firm nod, "Good." Lee said with a smile and a nod.

They waited a few moments then Troy opened the pen door, "Alright little chickens, let's get to pecking." Troy said as he walked right up to the four of them. "And I want no funny business today. You hear me?" Troy said glaring down at Clementine, "Afraid I'm gonna need an answer missy." He said directly to her,

Clementine glared up at him coldly before nodding, "Yes sir."

"Good, let's get a move on." Troy said as he turned around and lead the four of them out of the pen.

The four of them were brought out to the expansion personally and Lee saw the comic store yet with Troy right there he had to wait. Hours past as they all worked under the watchful eye of Troy, Lee continued to look for an opening and just around sunset Clementine came over to him, "Are you going to get the radio to Luke?" She whispered to him as they worked on putting a piece of plywood up,

"I will if I can just shake Troy for five minutes. We need a distraction." Lee whispered back,

Clementine thought for a minute then whispered over to him, "Maybe we can get Kenny and Mike to fight, then when Troy is separating them you could sneak away."

Lee raised his eyebrows, "Good idea." He said with a smirk. Clementine let out a little proud smile and said she would go and tell them.

Moments later Kenny and Mike started to argue while Lee slowly moved towards the front door. Just as Kenny took a swing and Mike tackled him to the ground Troy put down his radio and came storming over, "Alright what the fuck do you think you're doing! Stop this fucking shit!" He shouted out angrily as he raised his rifle.

Lee wasting no time slipped right out of the door and ran over to the comic store. He slipped through the door and looked around only to see nothing. "Luke?" He whispered out. Just outside the door he could hear Troy shouting and it sounded as though he was heading out of the store. Lee quickly moved forward and started to search around the store, "Where the fuck is he?" He asked himself as he found nothing.

With time wasting he slowly moved back to the door while giving one last look around. "Fuck." He whispered to himself as he walked out of the door. He looked to his left and saw Troy staring right at him with Kenny, Mike and Clem right behind him.

"What the fuck were you doing in there?" Troy asked angrily. Lee stared at him silently as Troy kicked the door open and looked around. He looked around for a moment then looked back to Lee with narrowed eyes. He moved up to him and slammed the butt of his rifle into Lee's stomach sending him to his knees,

"Hey!" Kenny shouted out as his eyes flared up,

"Lee!" Clem exclaimed as she ran over to him,

"You're all fucking lucky that Bill wants you in the pen. I'll just let him deal with you, now get the fuck up." Troy said with his rifle raised. Lee slowly got to his feet and the four of them were lead inside. As they got into the pen they were shocked to see Luke laying on the ground, clearly beaten as Carver stood over him. Carlos was kneeling down trying to see if anything was broken as Carver began to speak. Lee looked up and saw Bonnie and Vince along with a few other guards surrounding the group.

"After all we've done for you this is how we are repaid for our trust? With Treachery? With deceit? With theft!" Carver said as he paced in front of the group. Molly ran over to Lee who was still holding his stomach, "Whatever you were planning is over...it's done! You can't just run from your problems. You can't just up and leave when it gets tough…'cause there's nowhere else you can go where it ain't." Carver said slowly walking up towards Lee and Clementine, "Tough is all we got now, get it through your fuckin skulls." He glared at them in particular for a moment then walked back to the front of the group, "Luke can't help you now, only you can do that. You must help yourselves...you must help me find the strength to forgive you." Carver slowly crossed her arms and looked at each of their faces, "You can start by telling me the other one is?" Carver said holding up a walkie talkie. Lee raised an eyebrow seeing that Luke didn't wait for them he must have been caught stealing a radio for himself. "I'm going to count to three and if that radio is not in my hand by then, we'll have to make things more difficult." Carver paused then started to count, "One…...Two…."

Lee's face tightened then he put his hand into his pocket grabbing the radio, "I got it!" He called out causing the others to look at him surprised and now fearful. Carver put his hand out and glared at Lee stoically.

"Lee." Clementine whispered out to him,

"Don't." Molly said grabbing his wrist,

"It's okay." He whispered back to them and slowly started to walk up to them. Lee made direct eye contact with Carver as he continued to walk up to him,

Lee held up the radio and began to drop it into Carver's hand, yet just before it hit his palm he said, "Three."

Lee stared at him and narrowed his eyes, "Motherfucker." He said shaking his head as Carver slammed his hand into his gut.

"Lee! You sonofabitch!" Molly shouted out and started to run forward,

"Fucker!' Kenny shouted out and tried to follow suit only to get hit on the back of his head. Kenny fell to his knees as Troy towered over him, Sarita started to run over to him only for Carlos to reach out and stop her. As Molly reached Carver he simple shot his hand out and slapped her to the floor. Lee felt his veins course with fury and he got up trying to slam his head into Carver's stomach. Carver reached out and slammed his knee into Lee's head sending him sprawling back onto the ground.

"Every just calm the fuck down!" Carver shouted out as he pulled out his revolver, "This is your choice you either learn a lesson or you get killed. It makes no fucking difference to me, so what's it gonna be?" Carver said glaring around at the group who stood there unmoving. Carver slowly slipped his revolver back into his holster and knelt down grabbing Lee by his collar, "Now what the fuck am I going to do with you?" He asked menacingly.

 **Alright long time no see everyone, I know it's been awhile but I was working on some other stories as well as planning out how I want this to go. So next chapter is going to be pretty big and I also hope you liked this chapter as well. Catch you all in the next one and I look forward to reading all your reviews!**


	17. Escape

The Good The Bad The X-Boy- **Glad you liked the chapter and also hope you'll like how things continue from this point forward. While some things just won't change because Lee wouldn't be able to change it, some big things will be changed.**

Windyrat- **Glad you liked it bud, hope you enjoy this one.**

Smeake- **Good to hear from you and hope you'll like this one too.**

CosmicArmor- **Ha ha, funny you say that but last chapter was my average length. Guess that means I just kept you on edge and left you wanting more. Anyway enjoy this one.**

Guest- **Read on and find out.**

Guest- **Now this is something i've seen a lot of people say and I just don't get it. Does Clem being independent mean she has to hate and fight with Lee? She's a kid and while they are forced to grow up quicker in this world that doesn't mean she's going to be looked to when people are making choices. I feel i've shown that she's become quite independent but I want just have her start fighting with Lee unless they start to seriously disagree on some things, as of now they are on the same page.**

Guest- **Hmmm what is Carver going to do…**

Fewpolecat93- **Ah I felt a bit bad that I've neglected Nick but no worries as I'm planning on getting him more involved soon, so that's on the way.**

Worker72- **Glad some people are enjoying Vince, the 400 days characters as a whole I have an idea for which you'll see soon enough. Also, the end for Carver is on the way so look forward to that my friend.**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

Carver looked down at Lee who showed no fear, keeping direct eye contact with the man. The fact that Lee didn't seemed frightened pissed Carver off even more as he could tell that Lee wouldn't be dissuaded with just words. He looked to his left and right eyeing the group before looking back down to Lee, "Troy, bring Kenny over here." He said as he let go of Lee's shirt dropping back down to the ground,

"What are you doing?" Sarita asked fearfully as she watched Troy drag over Kenny,

Kenny was pushed down to his knees and looked over to Lee then back to Carver, "Fuck you." He spat out to him.

Carver narrowed his eyes and grabbed Kenny's shirt with one arm and with the other started to press the walkie talkie antenna into his left eye. Kenny screamed out in pain and struggled against Carver as everyone else stared in horror, "Stop! Kenny!" Sarita cried out as Carlos continued to hold her back,

"You fuck!" Lee exclaimed as he started to get up only for Troy to kick him to the ground. Bonnie and Vince looked at each other both feeling that this was going to far. Lee let out a cough as Troy's boot slammed into his chest knocking the wind out of him, "S-stop this." Lee said weakly,

Carver pressed the walkie into his eye again before finally dropping Kenny to the ground. Kenny let himself collapse, he could barely keep himself conscious. Lee took deep breaths as he watched a small pool of blood form around Kenny's head. Lee closed his eyes, he was a bit relieved that it was over yet Carver seemed to sense this and leaned down to him, "Pay attention, we aren't done here yet." He whispered out icily,

Lee's eyes sprung open and he turned watched Carver walk over to Molly grabbing her roughly by the hair, "No! Don't you fucking touch her!" Lee exclaimed jumping up only for Troy to grab his shoulders forcing him to his knees. Carver slammed his fist into Molly's stomach knocking the strength right out of her. Lee struggled against Troy wildly but couldn't break free from his grasp as Carver continued to hit Molly, "Stop! You want blood take it from me!" Lee shouted out,

"This is how you'll remember, if you want your friends to be safe you'll follow my rules." Carver replied as he dropped Molly to the ground,

"Fine! Just please stop!" Lee exclaimed as Molly lowered her head taking deep breaths,

"You don't get it friend, her death is non negotiable." Carver said causing Lee's eyes to widen in fear,

"Bill-" Bonnie said in shock,

"Quiet!" Carver shouted out as he kicked Molly in the stomach sending her fully to the ground,

Lee continued to thrash around trying to get out of Troy's grasp to no avail. "It's o-okay Lee. It's okay." Molly whispered out as Carver pulled out his revolver aiming it down at her head. He slowly pulled the hammer back, everyone hearing the click.

However just as he started to squeeze the trigger Kenny dove at Troy bringing him to the ground. Carver looked up aiming his revolver up as Lee immediately dove at the man. Carver pulled the trigger just as Lee hit his body causing the shot to go wide and miss. The two men fell to the ground, Carver's revolver skidded across the floor as Lee wrapped his hand around his neck. Two of Carver's henchmen quickly aimed up their guns ready to kill both Lee and Kenny.

Yet to the shock of everyone Vince raised his gun and fired killing the two men with a burst of gunfire. Kenny who was on top of Troy looked around and quickly spotted a piece of firewood which he reached for. Meanwhile Nick and Matthew ran for the two rifles the dead henchmen had. Despite Troy's struggling Kenny quickly grabbed the piece of wood and began to slam it into Troy's face.

Just behind them Carver put his boot into Lee's chest and kicked him off of him. He pulled himself to his feet and looked around for his gun. He spotted it and just as he began to go for it Lee reached out wrapping his hand around his leg and biting deeply into his ankle. Carver let out a scream of pain as Lee's teeth pushed through his pants and flesh. Lee began to pull back ripping off his achilles tendon dropping him to the floor. Lee spit out the flesh from his mouth as he got to his feet.

As Lee walked towards his revolver Kenny finally got to his feet and looked down at Troy whose face now resembled a smashed watermelon. Blood poured out of his face, and his whole facial structure was now gone. Kenny took some deep breaths before he let out a loud yell and jammed the piece of wood down into what was left of Troy's skull. He turned back as Lee picked up Carver's revolver and started to walk over to Carver. "So here we are." Carver said as he gritted his teeth, "Ya think running away from this place is gonna save you? Huh?!" Carver shouted out as Lee stopped in front of him, "No, you're not that stupid Lee. You know what this world is, you know-" Carver tried to continue only for Lee to fire off a round into his head with a cold glare,

Vince walked over to the gate and looked outside, "Oh hell." He groaned out,

"What?" Bonnie asked a bit fearfully,

The other slowly walked over and looked outside only to see the herd of hundreds of walkers heading straight towards the building. Lee walked over to Molly and slowly helped her up, "Are you alright?" He asked softly,

"W-what? You think that hurt?" She coughed out with a weak smile,

"Lee!" Kenny called out as Sarita clung onto him,

Molly and Lee looked over as he ran over, "What?"

"It's the fucking herd, we gotta get out of here." Kenny said quickly,

"Alright." Lee said with a nod as he took a step forward, "Everyone we need to get a move on now. We need to get ourselves outside."

"Ya'll can follow me, I can take you two the loading dock doors." Bonnie said quickly as she ran over to the pen entrance,

The group ran through the hardware store only stopping for a moment if they saw a weapon to grab. As they got to the loading dock Bonnie pulled it open and everyone started to hop out, "Alright listen close we need to cover ourselves in walker guts, if we don't they'll smell us and we'll die." Jane said as people began to jump out of hardware store,

"Lee." Vince said from behind him,

"What?" Lee asked as he peered back only to see him standing firm, "Vince, what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm not coming. I got friends here." Vince said firmly,

"Vince this place is getting hit by that herd. You could be killed." Lee said a bit confused,

"It's something I gotta do. Now go on before you miss your chance." Vince said as he turned around a started running to the roof. Lee watched for a moment upset as he left but with no time to waste he jumped down out of the building onto the ground.

"Lee." Clementine whispered over to him as he looked around at the walkers surrounding the building. He moved over to her and pushed his hand into the walkers stomach that she was using. As he coated his arms and chest Clementine coated his back in the walker's blood quickly,

"You okay?" Lee whispered to her,

"Yeah." Clementine said with a short nod, "You?"

"I'll make it." Lee replied with a little smile,

"Hey, where's Vince?" Bonnie asked looking around,

"He stayed behind." Lee replied as he got to his feet,

"Alright quiet." Jane said firmly, "Look we need to spread out, we clump up they could still smell us. Move slow and stay calm, don't make any noise." Jane said as she began to walk forward into the horde.

"This time we are gonna make it through together." Clementine said confidently as she looked up at Lee,

"That's right." Lee said with a small nod as the whole group began to walk forward.

Minutes passed as the group pushed through the herd, as time continued they started to spread out even more. Lee and Clem however were right behind Carlos and Sarah. They could hear Sarah starting to hyperventilate as she looked at the faces of the walkers and it only got worse as they started to hear gunfire coming from Howe's. "Clementine please say something to her, try and calm her down. You're her friend." Carlos said softly,

"Sarah please, calm down-" Clem tried to say only for a bullet to rip right through Carlos's neck. He let out a gurgling yell as he clutched his neck that immediately alerted the nearby walkers who grabbed onto him and bit into his arm and shoulder pulling him to the ground. Sarah let out a ear piercing scream that caused other walkers to turn around. As walkers began to close in on the group Bonnie opened fire at walkers that closed in on the group. Lee pulled out Carver's revolver and took two shots, "Clem we gotta go. Sarah, Sarah?" Lee asked only to see Sarah sprinting wildly through the walkers,

"Dammit Sarah!" Luke exclaimed as he started to run after her follow by Nick and Matthew. As they reached the tree line a bullet shot out and ripped through Nick's shoulder. As Lee continued to walk forward with Clem, Clementine heard a loud scream from Sarita. She quickly ran over towards them in pure concern, "Clem? Clem where are you going?" Lee whispered out as he tried to follow her, very confused.

As Clementine ran she heard another yell and spotted Sarita reaching towards the ground for her knife as a walker held onto her arm while biting into her wrist. Sarita looked up at Clem fearfully for a moment as Clem ran up and held her hatchet up. Lee finally spotted Clem and Sarita and he saw her grab onto her arm, "Clem No!" Lee shouted out as she slammed the hatchet down on Sarita's wrist.

Sarita let out a piercing screech as half of her arm was cut, Lee stood there wide eyed as Clementine pulled back and once again slammed down the hatchet completely severing Sarita's hand. Sarita held onto her stump shaking her head slowly in complete terror, finally the shock wore off and she shouted out at the top of her lungs in pain. "Oh fuck." Lee breathed out before running up to Clementine,

"Sarita?!" Kenny called out having heard her shout. He turned over and spotted her being tore into by two walkers as she continued to scream in pain. "No!" Kenny shouted as he ran over to her quickly killing the walkers feeding on her. Mike ran over as well protecting him as he held her dying body, "Hun please hang on, I ain't gonna let you die." He said nearly in tears,

"Kenny you gotta let her go, we need to move." Lee said quickly,

"Get away from us!" Kenny shouted out furiously, "It ain't gonna go this way again, I won't be left alone."

Lee looked around and then back down at Clementine who was standing there in fear and clear guilt. "Kenny man come on, we can't stay here." Mike said as he slammed his hammer onto a walker skull. Lee could see Kenny wasn't moving so he took closed his eyes and took a slow breath. He reached down and took Clem's hatchet and quickly slammed it down into Sarita's skull, putting her to rest once and for all.

"No!" Kenny screamed out as he stared at her destroyed head that was split from the top, "How fucking dare you, Lee! How fucking dare you!" Kenny shouted out as he got to his feet,

"Not now, we have to move." Mike said grabbing his shoulder and pulling him towards the tree line,

"You had no right! No fucking right!" Kenny shouted as he ran away from the both Lee and Clementine,

"Kenny wait." Clementine tried to say yet he disappeared into the crowd of walkers almost instantly,

"It's okay, just follow me. I'm right here with you." Lee said softly as he took her hand and started to lead her forward. The pair pushed through the horde as the survivors at Howe's continued to fire at the horde drawing them in towards the building from all sides. As they continued Lee could hear Clem's breath pick up as she continued to squeeze his hand. He held onto her tightly and looked around, part of him worried for Molly yet he figured that she would be just fine.

As they reached the tree line a hand quickly reached out and pulled Clementine down. Lee grabbed the revolver from his belt and aimed down only to see Rebecca looked up at them in fear. He knelt down and she looked at the pair now relieved, "I can't find anybody." She whispered over to them,

"Us either." Clementine said with a nod,

"Doubt we will. Everyone took off in other directions. Hell we didn't even come up with a group up point." Lee said with a frown at their weak planning,

"It's okay, when we first escaped from here we all met up in a civil war park, called Parker's run. That's where we'd go if we got separated, so that's were I bet Luke will be. I just don't know how we're going to get there." Rebecca explained as she looked at the herd around them,

"We're still covered in their sent, all we have to do is push through this last cluster." Lee said firmly, "Come on follow me." Lee added as he got up and started walking forward once again.

Rebecca took a shaky breath and got to her feet slowly inching forward away from the trees she was using for cover. Yet as the walkers started to surround her she began to panic and back away, "No, go back. We have to go back." Rebecca whispered out frantically,

Clem turned back and bumped into Jane who had just reached the edge, "Jane!" Clementine exclaimed, "Please help us."

"Listen to your friend Lee, just push through them. You'll be fine." Jane hissed out as she kept walking,

"No please, just stay with us. Help us through this." Rebecca pleaded with her,

"We can't stick together, they will smell us and then you will be dead." Jane replied coldly,

"Jane." Lee said with narrowed eyes as he held a gaze,

She let out a sigh and slowly moved back to them, "Fine but we're going to need a cow catcher." She said as she looked around,

"Just tell me what you need me to do." Clementine said firmly,

"I just need...okay that one." Jane said pointing to a think female walker, "I'll need you to distract it." Jane said as she started to sneak around it,

Before Lee could speak up Clementine moved forward and quickly spoke up to the walker, "Hey, over here." The walker slowly started to turn only for Jane to reach out and twist its arm behind it's back.

She quickly stuck her knife into it's mouth and cut off it's lower jaw, "Won't be biting anyone now, will ya?" Jane said with a little smirk as she swung the walker around and started to walk, "Stay close, if you fall behind I'm not coming back."

The group began to walk once again, Lee hung in the back separated from the group slightly as to not cause too much of a smell for the walkers and finally they reached the end of the herd. Jane pushed the walker she was using down and quickly stabbed it in the head, "Come on let's get the hell out of here." Jane said as she walked into the forest. Lee gave a final look back to Howe's watching everyone on the roof firing at the horde before turning back towards the group and continuing.

Hours past the the group continued to walk, it wasn't long until the sun started to rise yet again. The thought of already spending a whole night away from Molly was killing Lee, not to mention fatigue was setting in on the others, especially Rebecca. "How much farther is this place?" Lee asked looking back to Rebecca,

"Not too much farther, we just wanted to pick a place that wasn't too close to Carver's camp." Rebecca replied,

"Let's hope your friends are there when we get there." Jane said while shaking her head slightly,

"Don't say things like that, they'll be there." Rebecca quickly said,

"Fine! Sorry." Jane said quickly wanting to keep things quiet,

Rebecca lowered her head and she looked behind them, "And god, I don't even know if we're safe. I know it's been quiet but what if the herd is following us."

"We're fine, just stay focused." Lee said firmly,

"I know I'm-i'm going as fast as I can." Rebecca said as she rubbed her stomach, "I just can't stop thinking about everyone we left behind. I don't know why Vince wouldn't leave with us."

"Can't dwell on that. He made a choice." Lee said trying not to think about him, he probably saved his life back with Carver and now he was more than likely dead,

"Stupid choice if you ask me." Jane said with a shrug,

"I don't know, I know we were thinking about using the herd but maybe if we were patient. Or if we thought of something else" Rebecca said halfheartedly,

"It worked!" Lee shouted a bit annoyed,

"If you can call that working." Rebecca shot back,

"Well maybe if people hadn't panicked things wouldn't have gone so bad." Jane added on,

"Of course we panicked! We were scared!" Rebecca exclaimed,

"The plan was good, it was the execution that was sloppy." Jane said peering back to her,

"That sounds an awful like you're saying it was their fault." Rebecca said angrily,

"What? No, no, that's not what i'm saying." Jane said clearly offended,

Lee clenched his fist and barked out orders, "Both of you shut the hell up, we are in the middle of the god damned forest! You want to kill each other do it once we're safe."

Suddenly Rebecca let out a whimper and she clutched her stomach, everyone stopped and quickly walked over to her, "I need to stop." She said quickly, "Just for a few minutes, please I don't want to slow us down."

"Sit down, it's alright." Lee said quickly, "Jane keep watch for us."

"I-alright." She said a bit hardly almost arguing with herself about it,

"Thank you." Rebecca said softly as Lee and Clem brought her over to a stump,

Rebecca lowered her head and her lip trembled slightly, "Alvin was suppose to be here for this. Now he's dead because of that madman back there."

"Kenny can help you, he had a family." Clementine said with a reassuring nod,

"That's right, you'll get through this." Lee said as he reached out and squeezed her shoulder,

"What are you going to do with it?" Jane suddenly asked to the shock of the others,

"What the hell is that suppose to mean?" Rebecca asked icily,

"Uh, sorry,I was just trying to make conversation. It was nothing." Jane said quickly as she rubbed the back of her head,

"No, what did you mean by that." Rebecca asked as she quickly got to her feet, "Do with what, my baby?!"

"I'm just looking at the worst case scenario. " Jane replied as she crossed her arms, "You three won't be able to raise a baby by yourselves."

"So what the fuck are would you propose?" Lee asked narrowing his eyes at Jane,

"I'm just saying you can't feed it and whatever, not out here." Jane replied,

"We look after it together." Clementine said firmly,

"I'm sure that sounds nice but sometimes you can't save everyone." Jane replied easily,

"And that's suppose to mean we just leave it behind?" Lee said hoarsely,

"You don't get it, I've seen this before. Back in the beginning me and my sister, we-" Jane started to explain,

"What she fucking die?" Lee cut her off, causing her to look at him surprised, "People fucking die, my parents, my brother all of them fucking dead. I haven't given up on myself or other people and I sure as shit ain't gonna start now because you can't get over the death of your sister." Lee said with an icy tone,

"You don't have the right-" Jane said unsure on how to truly respond to Lee's outburst before turning around and storming off down the trail.

"Lee that wasn't right." Clementine said as they all watched Jane walk away,

"Come on, let's go." Lee said ignoring the comment and leading the others forward down the trail once again. Nearly thirty minutes later they reached the center of parker's run. They looked around and spotted Bonnie, Mike, and Molly standing near the entrance. Kenny however sat at the fountain away from the others hanging his head. They ran over to greet the others and figure out what was happening and what their next step should be.

 **Alright everyone here we are back once again. Now I have a few updates, one being why I was gone for so long. So what had happened was my laptop charger broke and I had to order a new one that took nearly two weeks to show up, obviously that sucked.** **Regardless I'll see you all in the next chapter where things are sure to get interesting.**


	18. Get Up!

The Good The Bad X-Boy- **Glad you liked the chapter, I'm happy that some people are okay with how I ended both Troy and Carver. And of course I wanted to get a little snappy comeback from Lee towards Jame because her selfish tendencies do not mix well with him.**

CosmicArmor- **Sorry to keep you waiting but I hope that little finale for Carver's part was decent enough. Ah another who isn't having any of Jane's ideology about survival, guess I got a lot of Team Kenny readers, and that's a okay with me.**

Guest- **Well we all remember how Kenny was after Sarita died, he scared everyone but Clem and took out his anger on her as well. Now with Lee around and what Lee did...well just read on.**

FocUs24- **Oh how could I kill Molly off already, i'm having way too much fun with her and Lee. Now can I say that Lee is going to go on a Kenny route against Jane, all I'll say is he won't be exactly the same.**

Fewpolecat93- **Thanks for the review and glad you liked Carver's death, thought it would be nicer for it to change up a bit. Anyway hope you like this one.**

Worker72- **Right so this story is based all on if Lee was alive and still in the group. The thing is Lee can't change everything, regardless with Lee being there Carlos still would have been shot and Sarita still would have been bitten and killed. As for Carver, I want this story to start moving into a more original direction, the longer the story stayed around Carver the less interesting it was to me. Anyway the point I was getting at was, I'm not changing the story whenever I want, I only want to change it when Lee or Molly could make an actual impact, like with Matthew. So that's my thought process, hope that makes sense.**

Percabeth4lyfee- **Well glad you liked the story and I checked out yours, and it reminds me of some of my older stuff. So yeah it's not t0o bad for sure, hope you like this chapter as well.**

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 **Enjoy**

"Thank fucking Christ, I lost you in that herd so I heard the screams...I thought…" Molly said softly as embraced Lee with a tight hug,

"It's alright, Clem was looking out for me." Lee said with a little smile as he looked over to her.

Clementine wasn't paying attention to him in the slightest, she was staring right at Kenny who was staring at the ground with a destroyed expression lingering on his face. "How is he?" She asked no one in particular,

"Bad," Mike said as he crossed his arms and peered over to him, "All he's done since we got here is sit there. Tried to talk to him before, blew up at me. Shouting, some really scary shit." Mike added on,

"Have you guys seen Luke or Nick?" Rebecca asked,

"They went after Sarah, Matthew was with them." Clementine pipped in,

Bonnie slowly shook her head, "Nothing."

Jane looked around the camp, "Look…" She said rubbing the back of her neck, "I get that you want to wait for your friends but we can't stay here. I mean just look around." Jane said causing the others to glance around. Jane did have a point, they were sitting in a field with a little monument fountain. If anything, living or dead, came by they would see them for sure.

Lee continued to stare at Kenny concerned for his well being, "I'm gonna go talk with him. That man has been too much for one lifetime." He mumbled out as he walked past the group,

"What exactly happened Clem?" Molly asked as she watched Lee,

Clem hung her head before saying, "Sarita died." She felt guilt for cutting off her hand right then and getting her killed for sure. "I hope Kenny is going to be okay."

Lee walked over to Kenny, now where a rag around his missing eye that was soaked with blood, he heard him whispering to himself, "God Sarita, i'm sorry. I can't be alone again." As Lee walked into his view he looked up at him with a cold, piercing stare, "You don't think I know what y'all are whispering about over there? "What's wrong with Kenny? Why's Kenny acting that way? Do you think Kenny's okay?" Kenny took a short pause then with a gravelly voice said, "That's all I hear from anyone anymore."

Lee could feel the contempt that Kenny was feeling for him. He took a slow breath, "Ken, I-i'm sorry about Sarita-"

"Sorry huh?" Kenny said with a short scoff, "Well that's nice of ya, seeing how this was your fault in the first place." Lee stared at him with a narrowed gaze at the insult, "Shoulda known better than to trust a man who's been fuckin bit before."

"Kenny it was our only chance." Lee said with a slightly agitated voice,

"I can't even look at you." Kenny said disgusted, "You cleaved her face in two. That's the kinda man you are Lee. You don't care 'bout anyone but yourself." He hissed at him,

"Being angry isn't gonna fix anything, we need to figure out a plan." Lee said trying to snap him out of this,

"Plan? You want a fucking plan Lee? Well we got nothing!" He barked out causing everyone to look over to the two, "There ain't no magical fucking Rv. No life saving train or boat to pull our ass's out of the fire. We are fucked!" Kenny said his eye glowing with fury,

"Kenny you can't just give up like this, Sarita wouldn't want you to just stop going." Lee said sympathetically,

"And what would you know about what she wants? You're just a murderer Lee, killed your wife then you killed mine." Kenny growled out as he stood up, "Shoulda left you back on that road where Carly died! You're not my friend, you've never been one!"

Lee narrowed his eyes and took a step towards him, "I won't say this again, knock this shit off. Don't make me knock you on your ass."

"Fuck you Lee!" Kenny shouted out and quickly took a swing at him. The others stood shocked for a moment as Lee quickly ducked under the strike. "You've always been an asshole! You don't have my back! You never did, you only look out for yourself!" He shouted wildly as he grabbed onto Lee's shirt,

"I've been there for you Kenny! Remember Duck, Katjaa? I helped you through that!" Lee shouted back as he struggled against his grasp. The pair fell to the ground and Kenny pulled his fist back ready to slam it into Lee's face. Yet his hand began to shake as he stared at Lee's face, Lee simply looked back at him with a mixed look of disappointment and anger. Kenny's face tightened and he closed his eye before pushing himself off of Lee and storming into a nearby tent.

Lee slowly sat up, Clem and Molly came rushing to his side as he stared at the tent, "Are you alright?" Molly asked quickly,

"I'm fine." Lee said stoically as he watched Kenny and lingered on the entrance to the tent as he disappeared into it. Lee slowly pulled himself off the ground and rubbed the back of his head.

Molly let out a frown and stared at the tent, "What the fuck is wrong with him. He can't just blame you for this."

"It's how he grieves, the man has already been through hell once before. Too go back through it all again...gotta keep an eye on him. Don't know what he could do." Lee said with a concerned tone.

The three slowly got up and headed back towards the rest of the group, as they walked Lee could see Clem sulking with a guilty look plastered all over her face, "Clem, you don't worry about that. This isn't your fault." Lee said firmly,

"Okay." Clem replied halfheartedly as she stared at the ground,

As they reached the rest of the group Rebecca was the first to speak up, "Lee honey, are you alright?"

"It's fine," He said with a quick glance back towards the tent, "Just need to keep an eye on him."

Jane who was slightly pacing around returned to the group, "Look we can't stay here, we don't know what could be lurking around in those woods. They will see us before we see them, that's a fact." Jane looked down at Clem, "Why don't me and the kid do a little scout around, see if we can see the rest of your friends."

Lee let out a frown, "I don't know-" He began to say,

"Sounds like a good idea, i'll go with you two." Molly said with a nod, "Quicker the others get here the quicker we can get the fuck out of here."

Lee rubbed his brow with his hand and sighed, "Alright fair enough, i'll come too."

"No you'll stay here." Molly said as she walked over to the stump she rested her items on and picked up a knife,

"Excuse me?" Lee said gruffly,

"You need to be the one to watch over Kenny, you're the only one with a gun. You need to be here...just incase." Molly said looking over to the tent then back to Lee. Lee stared at her for a long while, arguing internally before he let out a short, stiff nod. Molly let out a little smile and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. She turned around and the followed both Jane and Clem out of their camp and towards the woods. Lee let out a worried exhale and began to walk the perimeter of the camp, keeping watch. It was the only thing he could think of doing to keep his mind occupied.

Nearly twenty minutes later in the forest Molly could tell what happened with Sarita was really eating away at Clem. She walked up to the kid and gave her a little smile, "Alright kid, what's up. You're never this quiet." She said trying to ease into a conversation,

"Nothing, i'm fine." Clem mumbled back to her,

"You know you and Lee have a lot in common." She put her arm around Clem and smirked, "One of those things is you're horrible liars. Come on, tell me what's going on."

Clem looked up at her then back down at the ground. She let out a long sigh and finally spoke up, "I killed Sarita."

Molly looked at her dismissively, "What are you talking about?"

"She got bit and I cut off her arm. I heard Lee tell me not too and I still did it. Now she's dead, it's my fault." Clem said as crossed her arms and hugged herself,

"No Clem that's not your fault, you tried to save her. You can't blame yourself." Molly said softly,

"She's right kid, you did what you thought was right. That's all anybody can do in that situation." Jane piped in, "You acted. You did a hell of a lot more than the others." Jane added on. Molly looked up at her with a raised brow as she lead them along, "That group is breaking down, you really shouldn't be around when it collapses. It's not going to be pretty."

"What are you talking about?" Molly finally asked,

"I'm talking about, how sooner or later that group of people back there is going to break. The fallout will be enormous, so if I was you I'd get out while you still can. You, the kid...maybe that guy Lee but that's all. The others, there's no point. They don't know how to survive." Jane explained as she stopped at a husk of a car and began to search it,

Clementine walked over to her and peered into the car, "What do you mean?"

"These are good people, we need to look out for each other." Molly interjected,

"I'm sure that you want to believe that but you really don't. Some people can't be helped and I just don't want you to learn that the hard way." Jane paused then looked back down at Clem, "Take Kenny for example, how much help is he going to be in his current situation. He's more of a liability than anything. Rebecca's situation won't help anything and right now you're all following a one armed guy with a short fuse."

"Lee knows what he's doing." Molly said with an annoyed tone,

"Sure maybe he does, but he's leading the blind. No one else knows what they are doing. For what it's worth I do like most of them but shit happens people get killed. You need to pay attention to things that can easily get you. I mean look at yourself, look at your jacket." Jane said as she opened up the glove box of the car,

"My jacket?" Clementine asked confused as she looked down at it,

"Bet it's warm, comfortable...but one of those dead fucks get ahold of you. They'd bite right through that. Comfort isn't a factor anymore, you need to be practical. Leather, something tough. If I had a spare one i'd give you my jacket, hard for them to bite through these." She said giving her arm a little pat, "My sister used to wear one…" Jane said more to herself before quickly turning away from the car and heading back down the road,

Molly looked to Clem then back to Jane before quickly following, "Sister huh? Did she pass before or after?" Molly asked as she caught up to her,

"After." Molly said quickly and firmly,

"Mine too. Living or dead?" Molly asked as she slipped her hands into her jacket pockets,

"Dead." Jane said with a stone cold face,

"Sorry...living got mine." Molly said as she looked up at the sky,

"Sorry." Jane said with a little glance,

"How long?" Molly asked look over at her,

"Since?" Jane asked with a raised brow,

"Since you've been in a group. Awhile right?" Molly assumed,

"Yeah...a long time." Jane said with a short nod,

"Well makes sense." Molly said to herself and began to lag behind her,

"What do you mean-" Jane started to ask only for Clem to call out,

"Hey look!" Clem said pointing up at a large sign for a trailer park, "Maybe they are in there." She said with a hopeful tone,

"I don't know…" Jane said looking at the place quizzically,

"Can't hurt to check, we could even find some food." Molly said continuing to walk with Clem right next to her,

"Yeah...right." Jane said halfheartedly before finally following the pair towards the trailer park outskirts. As they approached the nearby fencing Jane let out a smile, "Jackpot." She said to herself and jogged over to two walker bodies, "Bet they got something good on them."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Molly said with a nod as she walked over as well.

As Jane took her ice pick and began to stab their heads confirming that they weren't coming back Clem looked at the pair confused, "Why would they have anything good on them? They're just walkers."

"But they weren't too long ago." Jane said with a little smirk,

"She's right, the old ones. They won't have anything, just wallets and cellphones but these ones were survivors. They could have something." Molly explained,

"Exactly." Jane said with a nod,

"Here Clem help me out." Molly said as she knelt down. Clem walked over and began to help Molly search through the walkers pockets. Clem found a few rounds in it's back pocket, "Nice, ammo's getting harder and harder to come by."

"Not gonna get any easier either." Jane added on. As they continued to search through the pockets Jane spoke up again, "Smart haircut."

Clem let out a little smile, "Thanks."

"So...you're crew always been this dysfunctional? I mean I know you fit in and all but you aren't exactly like them, neither of you." Jane said to them,

Molly slowly shook her head and stayed quiet, "Well I was with another group before, with Lee and Kenny. It was a better group, and they were different...better." Clem replied with a bit of a sullen tone,

Molly peered over and saw another walker body. She moved over to it and pulled out her knife stabbing it's skull, "Never be too careful." Jane said with a nod as she found a nail file from one of the walkers pockets, "These are great, sharpen a blade, light a fire. Jamie always had one in her purse." She said as she stared at it before slipping it into her pocket,

"Clem give me a hand, would ya?" Molly said with a grunt as she tried to turn the walker's corpse over,

Clem quickly moved over and helped roll the body over and her eyes quickly widened. She knelt down and picked up a cracked pair of glasses, "These are Sarahs." She said in shock along with a bit of fear,

"Looks like your friend didn't make it." Jane said matter of factly,

"You don't know that." Molly said quickly,

"Don't get your hopes up." Jane said shaking her head, "Look I know what you want me to say but-" Jane explained only to be cut off by Sarah shouting and Luke yelling back to her. The trio got up and quickly moved around trying to find a way into the trailer park. As they turned the corner they all stopped, both Clem and Molly looking grief stricken as they saw who was tangled up in a hold of the chainlink fence.

Matthew laid caught in the fence, bites along his arms and legs. He looked up at them with milky eyes and let out a gurgling groan. He reached his one free arm out at them and continually swiped at them while snapping his jaws hungrily, "Matt...fucking hell." Molly said with a tremble in her voice,

"He was your friend, you should do this." Jane said while looking down at the Clem,

Clem let out a small nod and looked down at Matthew for a moment, "I'm sorry, Matthew." She said softly as she pulled out her hatchet and pulled back ready to swing,

"Wait." Molly said quickly. She reached out and helped Clem angle the axe so it would be a clean, quick kill, "Swing straight." She said softly and move her hand away. Clem took a slow breath and slammed the hatchet down on Matthew's skull splitting the top into two halves. His body went limp and his head immediately dropped down. Clem pulled against the hatchet that was stuck firmly in his skull. She let out some grunts and finally along with a splash of blood the hatchet came free. "It's done. You did a good job." Molly said resting her hand on Clem's shoulder,

Jane moved over and untangled Matthew letting his body drop down, "You gotta be ready if it happens to anyone else. Luke, Sarah, Lee, anyone. No hesitation." Jane said firmly,

"I know." Clem said as she hung her head,

"You hatchet, it gets stuck easy." Jane said after a moment. She reached into her belt and took hold of an ice pick, "Here use this, won't get you killed." She said as she handed it to Clem, Clem let out a small nod and the three quickly moved through the fence.

As they moved deeper into the yard Jane looked over to Clem, "Look from what I've seen you're alright but you need to improve killing these things if you're going to make it. You gotta know their weak points." Jane looked around and saw a walker lumbering ahead of them, "Watch closely." She whispered before running forward. In a swift motion she jammed her foot into the walkers knee sending it to the ground and then quickly killing it.

Clem let out a surprised smile and nodded. Molly and Clem then both moved over and turned the corner, they could still hear Sarah and Luke and spotted a trailer that was being assaulted by the dead. "Well at least we don't have to go searching." Molly said with a little smirk,

"We have to distract them somehow." Jane said to them as Clem looked down and quickly stabbed a walker on the ground, that was not fully dead, "That's it, don't trust these shits."

"I got an idea." Molly said, "Let's lay the body in that truck, horn with bring them this way."

Jane let out a smirk, "Sounds good to me." She said as she moved forward and grabbed hold of the walker,

"Clem watch our backs." Molly said as she to took hold of the walker. The two women began to drag it towards a nearby truck and quickly put it into the cab and let it fall against the horn. The walkers assaulting the trailer quickly turned around and began lumbering towards them, if not for a makeshift fence separating the two they would have surrounded them.

"Let's move quick, watch yourselves there could be more inside." Jane said quickly as she kicked open a door to a trailer that could lead them to the other side of the fence,

"God dammit I miss Hilda." Molly said with a groan as she pulled out her knife,

"Who the fuck's Hilda?" Jane asked confused as they moved into the building,

"Her mountain climber." Clementine said with a little giggle,

"You named your weapon?" Jane asked with an amused grin,

"Oh fuck off the both of you." Molly said shaking her head as she looked back towards Clem. He smile faded quickly as she saw a female walker sneaking up on Clem as they moved through the building, "Clem!" Molly exclaimed as she stopped and made a quick and harsh roundhouse kick. Her foot went just over Clem's head and made contact with the walker sending it flying to the ground. Clem quickly looked over at it and stabbed it with the ice pick, "You okay?" Molly asked quickly,

"Yes." Clementine said nodding quickly as the fear of what could have happened set in, "Thank you."

"No problem kid." Molly said with a smile,

"Wouldn't hurt for you to teach the kid that move." Jane said with a surprised look, "Now let's get inside there and get your friends." She said as she swung open the back door, the three ran outside heading straight towards the trailer. "Oh fucking hell." Jane grumbled out as she saw the walker group distracted by the horn turn to them, "Get that fucking door open, Molly help me out here."

Molly moved over to Jane's side and the two stood in front of the stairs while Clem ran to the door and began to twist the handle, "It's locked!" Clementine shouted over to them,

"Then try something, get it open. We'll buy you time." Jane said as she quickly jammed her knife into a walkers skull. Clementine began to pound on the door, "Knockings not gonna help!" Jane shouted over to her,

"Luke! It's Clementine!" She shouted out, "Open the door!"

"He can't hear you with Sarah shouting! Try something else Clem!" Jane shouted back to her as she kicked a walker back causing a few others to tumble over,

"Oh for fucks sakes not everything has to be a lesson." Molly groaned out agitated as she hopped up the porch and quickly kicked the door open. The three moved inside and looked around for something to block a door. A large cabinet sat next to them which they quickly toppled over and blocked the door.

"Who's out there?" Luke asked as he opened the door, "Clem? Molly? Holy shit, it really is you." He said in shock,

"Luke! Are you okay?" Clementine quickly asked as she threw her arms around him,

He let out a sharp inhale and winced causing Clem to jump back, "It's nothing, i'm fine. Carver just worked me over."

"What are you doing here?" Molly asked confused,

"Sarah took off after Carlos, Me, Nick and Matt followed her. She found this place and dove inside. I've tried everything but I can't get her to leave." Luke looked back towards the room, "Nick got shot and lost a lot of blood, he ain't looking too good. We sent Matthew to go find you guys. Where is he?"

"He didn't make it." Jane said plainly,

"Shit." Luke said with a guilty look,

"No time to dwell on that, we need to get out of here, this place is getting surrounded." Jane said quickly, "Figure something out, i'll keep an eye on the door."

Luke nodded and turned around leading Molly and Clem towards the bedroom. As they entered Nick sat in one corner of the room with an almost dazed, tired look while holding his shoulder that had a large blood stain soaking into his shirt, "H-hey Clem." Nick said with a weak smile,

"Nick are you okay?" Clem asked with a worried tone,

"Never better." Nick said with a weak, short chuckle, "Don't know if i'm getting outta this one."

"Stop that. You're gonna be fine." Luke quickly said,

Clem looked to her left and saw Sarah sitting on the floor holding her legs, "Sarah." Clem said kneeling down, "Sarah are you alright, it's me, Clementine." She said as the girl stared out into nothing was shivering.

"I couldn't get through to her." Luke said shaking his head slowly,

"Sarah." Clementine said again causing her to blink a few times,

"C-Clementine?" She asked as if she was meeting her for the first time,

"Yeah, Sarah i'm so sorry." Clem replied while taking her hand, "But we have to go, it's not safe here." Sarah looked up at her then back to the floor, "I know what you're feeling right now, it's one of the worst feelings in the world. Ever since the walkers so many people I love have died." She started to say as Sarah began to whimper, "Sarah we can't be kids anymore, we don't get to be. If we do that we'll die." Clementine said trying to snap her out of it, this caused Sarah to look up at her a bit shocked and surprised yet she still didn't move.

Just then the window to the bedroom began to get hit on, Molly ran over to it and shut the curtains, "Fuck we're surrounded!"

"What was that?!' Jane shouted out from the front as she head the shelf against the door,

"They got us surrounded!" Molly shouted back,

"Shit!" Jane said hanging her head, "Look we can't stay here. I'm sorry but you can't save everyone Clem! You need to get yourself to safety, don't let her take you down with her!" Jane shouted causing Clem to hang her head,

"Look." Nick said slowly getting to his feet and pointing up, "We can get out the skylight."

"We need something to stand on." Molly said looking around,

"Like what?" Luke asked,

"That." Molly said looking at the shelf Jane was holding,

"Fuck it, let's go." Luke said heading towards the door with Molly. As the pair took the shelf and Jane held the walkers back Clementine knelt down in front of Sarah once again, "Sarah you are out of time! If you do not get up now, you will die! Do you understand!" Sarah began to cry and call out for her father. Jane and the others returned to the bedroom and slammed the door shut.

As the others began to pull themselves out of the room Clem continued to talk to Sarah, "Sarah you can't just give up! People care about you, you aren't alone!" She continued to cry and shake her head,

"Clem you can't save her." Jane said as she got onto the shelf and pulled herself out,

"Clementine let's go now!" Molly shouted down to her firmly,

Clementine pulled her hand back and gave Sarah a sharp slap across the face, "Get Up!" She shouted out causing Sarah to come out of her trance. She took hold of Clem's hand and got up. As the two girls were pulled out of the room, the walkers broke open the door and flooded the room. "Alright let's go, let's go." Jane said leading the others to the other side of the roof where they could hope onto the outside of the trailer park.

 **Alright everyone sorry about the long wait, I've had some bad writers block lately with most of my stories. Sometimes they feel stale and other time I can't think of the right thing to put down. But i'm back and hopefully you do like the chapter in the end, as I finally feel like I got what I wanted down on paper. Let me know what you thought about it in the form of a review and i'll see you all very soon.**


	19. Amid The Ruins

CosmicArmor- **Sorry but I love to end on a note where you wonder what's going to happen next.**

JJChandler- **Jane had a very survival of the fittest attitude, if a group seems weak move on. But the problem is, she's a very dependent person along with some cowardly bits evident in season 3. As much as she want's to be a cold loner she needs a group, or at least one person she can depend on.**

Windyrat- **Yeah i'm pretty sure Lee would have been just as shocked as Sarah was if he was there for that haha!**

Guest- **Clem does blame herself for Sarita, especially because she heard Lee telling her not to cut off her arm but she ignored him anyway. Now Lee is taking the blame and brunt of Kenny's grief for her, making her feel even more guilty.**

- **To be honest Matthew's death was a bit of a last minute idea, I was debating if I should have anyone die at that trailer park but Nick was never on that chopping block, in the end I felt that I needed to focus on other characters over Matthew.**

The Good The Bad The X-Boy- **Kenny almost snapped fully at Lee but their friendship and all the shit they've been through, that is planted deep inside him, he just couldn't bring himself to hurt him. On the other side of things Molly and Jane are talking and sharing war stories, and to Molly all she is seeing is her old self, a selfish loner looking out for number one only.**

Smeake- **Glad you liked it bud.**

Worker72- **Again as I always say Clem, while mature, is a kid. She isn't a wonder girl who needs to be more competent than almost every adult in the group. I figure have her tutored more or less by Jane and Molly this chapter was better than her just being a leader figure at 12.**

Ash The Aura Guardian- **Hey good to see a new reviewer, glad you like it and I appreciate the compliment on my writing as a whole. Lee is indeed being questioned and undermined due to his handicap but he is still, quite obviously, very able and Lee's strength isn't his ability to fight it's his ability to lead. And if they notice it or not he's been doing that for them and doing it well. As for Jane being proved wrong would definitely do her some good.**

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 **Enjoy**

Jane, Molly, Nick, Luke, Clem and Sarah all walked down the trail of the forest heading back to their temporary camp at Parker's run, each of them in a different state. Clementine walked with Sarah who was slowly receding back into her shocked state, she hadn't said a word since they left the park but at the very least she was walking. Clem looked over to her and let out a short sigh, "Sarah I know how you're feeling...but if you want to talk...i'm here." She said as she rubbed the back of her neck. Sarah continued to walk, she didn't even seem to hear Clem.

"She's gonna need time." Jane said to Clem with a quick glance back, "Might want to just give her a little space."

Clementine let out a small nod and walked a bit faster giving Sarah a little distance. Just then Nick let out a deep groan and fell to his knees. "Everyone hold up!" Luke exclaimed before quickly kneeling to Nick's side, "You okay?"

"Y-yeah, no, i'm fine. Just need to-to catch my breath." He shakily replied as he held his arm,

"Bullshit man you're shaking." Luke said dismissively, "Move your hand." Luke said as he took hold of Nick's arm that was holding his bullet wound. He carefully pulled it away as Nick winced in pain, Luke squinted his eyes and turned his head away as he could see puss and a dark coloring forming around the wound. "Ah, shit." He said as he put Nick's hand back over it,

"Bad? I bet it's fucking bad." Nick said lowering his head, "It's weird, it ain't hurting much anymore, just feels...warm."

"Don't worry, we'll get you back to our people and get you right as rain." Luke said firmly, "Can you stand?"

"Yeah, yeah, just-just help me up." Nick said holding out his free hand,

Luke helped pull Nick to his feet and the group began to walk once again. Clementine looked around and saw that rather than Sarah lagging behind the most, it was rather Molly. She had her head lowered and was strangely hugging herself. Clementine stopped for a moment and decided to wait for Molly to catch up to her. As she did Molly looked over to her and gave her a halfhearted smile. "Molly, are you okay?"

Molly let out a little sniff and nodded, "Yeah Clem i'm alright."

"What's wrong? Is it something with Lee?" She asked very concerned,

"No, it's Matt." She said with a small break, "He was a great person, we'd lived together for months back at the Ski Lodge. He was one of the nicest, kindest people you'd ever meet, especially now. Just seeing him like that, it's happened before and it's bound to happen again but...it really fucking sucks."

"I know, I found my parents like that." Clementine said as she too lowered her head,

Molly wiped her eyes and let out a short sigh, "I'm sorry kid." She said sincerely as the two walked, "It's good to feel this though." She added on after a moment,

"Why?" Clem replied,

"It gives purpose, meaning. Our time is short, and we need to make the most of it with the people we have. I'll miss Matt like hell but the memories, all the good times, that's what I still have." Molly explained before giving a small laugh, "I love being able to say that, if not for Lee I don't think I ever would have. He saved me from myself."

"You love him, right?" Clementine asked with a little smile,

"I do, a lot." Molly said returning the smile,

"Good." Clem replied finally holding her head back up, pushing the feeling of sadness behind her once again.

The group now walking in silence made it closer and closer to the park without issue, yet just at the edge of the forest Nick, abruptly, fell to the ground, "Nick!" Luke exclaimed. Everyone quickly gathered around him as Jane looked around the forest for any walkers that heard Luke's yell. Luke took hold off Nick's face and shook it slightly, "Nick, Nick, you there? You hear me?"

Nick's eye's fluttered open for a brief moment, "P-Pete?" He murmured out. Luke looked at him confused and in fear as his eyes slowly rolled back and he past out,

"Shit! Shit what the fuck do we do!?" Luke asked looking around at the others wildly,

"First thing you're gonna do is shut the fuck up." Jane hissed out to him, "We have no idea what's out in these woods."

"Right, right right right, sorry." Luke quickly said,

"We're almost there." Molly said looking up, "We can drag him back, let's get him up." Luke nodded quickly and sat Nick's body up. The pair took an arm each and put it around them. With Nick's feet dragging on the ground the group took off once again, this time almost jogging made it to the camp in mere minutes. Lee who had been watching for them ran out to meet them with mike right behind him,

"Holy shit, what happened?" Lee asked in shock as Mike took over for Molly with Nick, "Are you okay?"

"We're fine. Nick got hit last night, he's the one not doing okay." Molly replied as Luke and Mike dragged Nick away with Sarah following.

Lee looked around for a moment and frowned, "Matt?" Molly just shook her head in response and he lowered his for a moment and too a slow breath. "How's Sarah?"

"Not good." Jane said as she crossed her arms and leaned back a bit, "Girl is broken, is barely functioning."

"She would have died if not for Clem, she got her moving." Molly said with a soft smile towards Clementine. Lee looked at her a but pride filled, seeing exactly what she was capable of doing and what type of person she was becoming. Lee turned around and lead the others back towards the rest of the group, "Anything new with Kenny?" Molly asked,

"Haven't heard a word from him, i'm starting to think someone is gonna have to bring him back." Lee said as he slipped Carver's revolver back into his belt,

"I can do it." Clem pipped in,

Lee looked down at her a bit surprised but dismissively shook his head, "I appreciate that you want to help sweetie but I don't know if it's safe." Lee admitted,

"Kenny won't hurt me Lee." Clementine replied immediately,

"I-I don't know about that. We all saw what he did to me, I don't know exactly what his frame of mind is. I think that I should talk to him, see where he is mentally." Lee said as firmly as he could but everyone could tell the uncertainty in his voice,

"I'll talk to him," Clementine said firmly, "He was mad at you but I'm the reason he's feeling this way. I cut off Sarita's arm, I need to be the one to fix it."

Lee let out a slow sigh, he knew this was eating at her bad but fixing it just wasn't possible. "Molly, Jane you guys go on ahead, I need to talk to Clem." Lee said softly as he turned back to her. Molly let out a nod and started to walk away, Jane raised a brow but quickly shrugged and headed off as well. As soon as they were out of earshot Lee knelt down, "Clem, I know you want to fix this, to make him whole again but you just can't."

"But I-" Clementine tried to say,

"No Clem you need to hear me. You did what you did with good intentions but it didn't work out. You can't change the past and that means you can't fix it, Kenny lost Sarita and that whole just can't be filled. You can go in there and tell him the truth and try but at best he'll forgive you." Lee saw Clem lower her head almost defeated, "We know Kenny he'll come out of this but it'll leave a mark just like Katjaa and Duck did."

Clementine lip trembled and bit but she fought back against her tears, "How do I-what do I do. I feel horrible Lee, I just...feel bad."

"I know sweetie but you have to forgive yourself, you did all you could do in that situation." Lee said putting his hand on her shoulder,

"I need to tell Kenny, I need to know what he thinks." Clementine said with almost pleading eyes,

Lee's face tightened a bit, he was a bit reluctant to give in yet he could see she was hurting and this would be the only thing to give her some peace, "Alright, i'll be just outside the tent." Lee finally said,

A look of relief came over Clementine's face, "Thank you, Lee." She said softly. Lee nodded and stood back up, the pair headed back towards the tent Kenny sat in. As they reached the tent Clementine moved forward and took hold of the opening. She slowly inched her way inside while Kenny sat with his back to her, just staring at the tent wall.

Clementine's tongue caught in her throat immediately and she couldn't bring herself to speak. Kenny, however, did it for her. His gravelly voice spoke up yet he didn't even look back, "Do you know what it feels like to be on the edge of death?" Clem's face dropped in sadness and she gulped nervously, "Peaceful, it feels peaceful." Kenny answered.

Kenny turned his head sideways and with a small crack in his voice he said, "It was like I was floating away, watching the whole thing happen to me." Clem saw him clench his fists, "And then I woke up again," Kenny said with his eye flaring up, "Nothing's changed. I'm still taking a beating everyday. Katjaa, Duck, Sarita, no peace, no rest." Kenny said dropping his head. Clem felt her heart drop and she continued to let him speak his mind, "The punches just keep coming. Carver should have just finished me off, folks don't need me around I ain't helping anyone. They need someone like Lee, not me...not me."

Clementine narrowed her eyes and took a step towards him, "That's not true, you help ME, all the time. I need you. " Clem said sincerely,

Kenny cocked his head a bit as Clem talked but sighed not truly believing it, "Hmph, I've seen you take care of yourself more than any three adults put together. But uh...thanks for sayin that."

Clementine walked up to Kenny and knelt down next to him, "Kenny I have to say that-"

"That you were the one to cut off Sarita's arm? Yeah, I know." Kenny said, "Lee wouldn't have done it right then." Kenny said rather calmly as Clem watched him nervously, "I ain't mad atcha, I get you were trying to help." Clementine then watched as he winced in pain while instinctively moving his hand to his wounded eye,

"Are you okay?" She asked softly,

"Don't you worry about this. Hasn't killed me yet anyway." Kenny replied as he peered over to her,

Clementine looked at him annoyed, "Don't be stupid, it could be infected." She reached over and slowly took hold of the rag lifting it up causing Kenny to take in a sharp painful inhale. Clementine let out a disgusted look and she quickly looked away lowering the rag once again.

"Well?" Kenny asked only for them to be cut off by Luke yelling,

"Oh shit! Does that mean what I think it means?!" Luke exclaimed causing both Kenny and Clem to quickly head outside. As they left they saw the group gathered around Rebecca while Luke was clearly panicking, "Shit, shit, shit, shit." He continued to say aloud,

"Luke." Lee said to him yet he continued, "Luke." Lee said again a bit more forcefully still Luke ignored him, "Luke!" Lee shouted causing him to stop and look at him, "Calm down and shut the fuck up." Lee growled out to him, Luke closed his mouth and nodded slowly.

"Are you okay? How does it feel?" Mike asked Rebecca with a concerned tone,

"It feels wet, that's how it feels." Rebecca said a bit irritated,

"What's going on?" Clem asked the group,

"Rebecca's water broke." Bonnie replied,

Lee took control of the situation quickly seeing how everyone was giving worried looks, "Alright everyone just take a breath. Rebecca, sit down, you have to stay as calm as you can." Lee said as he helped her sit down on the edge of the fountain, "Kenny you're the only one here that's been through this thing. What do we need?" He asked as Kenny stared off into the distance,

"Kenny!" Molly shouted out in frustration,

"Just give me a second." Kenny said with a quick glance to her,

"Lee, you know she can't travel in this condition." Luke said wide eyed,

"Yeah I know that Luke." Lee replied with an annoyed glare before he turned back to Kenny, "Ken, come on focus."

"Right, right, sorry." Kenny said turning back to the others, "Were gonna need clean water for one, and blankets."

"We need to get outta this damn cold as well." Bonnie added on,

"Well that map shows a couple buildings nearby, maybe they have something we could use." Mike pointed out,

Lee nodded and stood up, "Then we need to search them, you heard Kenny we need water and blankets." Lee lead Mike, Bonnie, Jane and Molly towards the sign on the bulletin board that stood nearby, "We got the gift shop and a museum." Lee said as he traced his finger along the map, "We have to split up and search them at once."

"I think me and Jane could handle the gift shop, it's nearby and that means we'll be close to the others incase they need help." Molly replied,

Lee nodded, "Then I'll take Mike and Bonnie and check out the museum, well take a quick once over and be back as soon as possible."

"Lee, I want to go too." Clementine said as she walked up,

Lee peered back to her and gave a small nod, "Fine Clem will join us as well." Lee turned around to face the group, "I don't expect us to be gone too long, based on walking distance and the search we should be back within two hours. If we're not back before that come looking."

"If you're late and you make me worry, I will kick your ass." Molly said with a little grin,

Lee moved over to her and kissed her head lightly before turning to a small trail that lead towards the museum, "C'mon." He said leading the others along.

As Lee's group disappeared into the distance Molly turned to Jane, "Let's go see what we can find in the gift shop."

"Molly hold up for a sec." Luke called to her as Jane headed past the brick ruins towards the building by the river,

Molly paused and turned back to him, "What's up?"

"Lee just kinda left without telling the rest of us anything, what's going on?" Luke asked a bit annoyed,

"We're looking for somewhere safe and the stuff Kenny needs. He's checking out a museum while me and Jane are checking out the gift shop around the back,

"Right," Luke said with a nod, "Thing is Rebecca ain't the only one who needs help here. Sarah's in a state and Nick...that wound ain't getting better." He whispered to her as he looked back at Nick who was sitting with his head hanging,

"Okay, okay, I'll keep my eye out for anything Nick could use." Molly replied trying to reassure him,

"Alright." Luke said with a relieved nod, "I'll watch the perimeter for ya'll until everyone gets back here."

"Good, perk up buddy. We're gonna be fine." Molly added on before she turned around and headed towards the gift shop,

Luke held a dejected look as he watched he leave, "Yeah...right."

Molly moved past the ruins and entered a field, at the other end sat a two story building, clearly this was the gift shop. To the left was a strong running river and to the right was thick woods. Ahead of her she spotted Jane sitting at a picnic table holding her head. Molly walked over to her with a raised brow, "What are you doing?"

"Hey." Jane replied as she ran her fingers through her short hair, "Just stuck in thought, not the best habit to have these days."

"Tell me about it." Molly said with an agreeing nod,

"Still it's not so bad to have someone watching your pack." Jane said getting to her feet, "So what do you say partner, want to check out the deck?"

"Partner?" Molly said with a smirk, "Are we already at that stage?"

The two women began to walk to the stairs leading to the second floor, As they approached the stairwell Molly looked over to Jane and said, "You know you don't look okay, right?"

"Yeah but who does nowadays." Jane replied with a shrug, "Let's just focus on this right now." She added as she looked straight forward,

"I hope this place is what we're looking for, god knows we need a break." Molly said as she eyed the building,

The two slowly made their way up the rickety staircase and found that the store itself was locked behind a security gate. Jane let out an annoyed exhale and walked over to the gate, "It's locked." She said as she took hold of a padlock. Jane reached into her back pocket and pulled out the file she found earlier, "Maybe I can pick it."

"Right, with a nail file." Molly said dismissively,

"Hey, versatility is not overrated." Jane replied easily,

"Uh huh, but let's go with something more tried and true." Molly said as she pulled out a hair pin from her long hair, "See, perks of having long hair." She added as she knelt down and began to pick the lock,

"You ask me the cons outweigh the pros." Jane said as she wandered around the deck,

"Bet you see a lot of things that way." Molly muttered out,

"Huh?" Jane asked as she looked back to her,

"I said that this place being locked is a good sign." Molly replied, "Rebecca could have the baby here too."

"Yeah I bet there's food too." Jane added on. After a moment Jane said, "I can see the tops of buildings out there, Rebecca couldn't make it until after but that'd make a good first stop."

"On the road to where?" Molly asked as she continued to jiggle the padlock,

"Anywhere, we sure as shit can't stay here forever." Jane retorted,

"Yeah, got me there…come on you fucker open." Molly grunted out,

"Molly." Jane quickly whispered out, "Someone's coming."

"What?" Molly asked as she looked back at Jane as she crouched down,

"Someone can't tell, they're carrying a bag." Jane replied as Molly moved over to her, "We should stay down, just watch what he does. Last thing we need is someone seeing us and telling who ever they are with about an easy score." The pair heard a metal clicking sound as well as the distinct sounds of him climbing the stairs,

"Maybe I should just talk to him." Molly whispered out quickly,

"Your call, but hide first. Now." Jane said as she scrambled over to the secondary starwell. Molly looked around and quickly moved to a prop cannon sitting on the deck. The two waited as the young man limped towards a trashcan and attempted to stuff the bag into it.

Molly watched the kid perplexed by the whole thing for a moment before she slowly stood up, "Do you need some help?" She asked calmly. The kid jumped and quickly pulled out a revolver. He turned back, aiming at Molly immediately, "Whoa, whoa, easy, easy pal." Molly said as she watched the revolver that shook wildly in his hand,

"I-I do not wish to shoot you." The kid said with a thick russian accent,

"And I don't want you too. My name's Molly, what's yours?" She asked as she took a small step forward,

"I am Arvo." He replied, "I will go, I don't want to shoot anyone."

Molly saw as Jane slowly moved behind him, "Arvo you don't have to, just put the gun down and walk away." Molly said easily.

Before Arvo could react Jane reached out taking hold of Arvo's gun with one hand and shoving him with the second. Arvo stumbled forward and turned back only for Jane to point the gun in his face, "Back up and drop the bag." She said coldly,

"Jane take it easy, he doesn't want to hurt anyone." Molly said as she moved behind her,

"How can you say that, he just had a gun on you." Jane hissed back. She then took a slow breath calming herself, "Check the bag, see what it is."

Molly pursed her lips before reluctantly agreeing, as she crouched down Arvo narrowed his brow, "Please let me go, I need these things. "

"Holy shit." Molly said as she opened the bag only to reveal water and a lot of medicine, "This is a fuck ton of meds."

"Please they are for my sister, she is in pain. The pain makes her cry and the crying makes those things come. Please do not take them." Arvo pleaded,

"Sister or not we could really use these." Jane said icily, "Think about it Molly, Rebecca and Nick need those, hell Luke could use them too."

"No, you are not nice people." Arvo exclaimed as he coward a bit,

"I...I…" Molly whispered out as the conflicting thoughts battled in her mind. Crawford did this, the weak lost everything to them all in the name of something self preservation. Yet Jane was right...they needed this. "I'm sorry Arvo, we need these."

Arvo's face lit up in anger, "You will wish you had not done this." He nearly growled out. Jane's eyes narrowed and she took hold of his collar forcing him against the balcony, "N-no, what are you doing?" Arvo cried out as she pressed the revolver under his chin,

"Jane no! Stop it, don't hurt him!" Molly exclaimed as she ran up behind her,

"Yes, please, just let me go." Arvo whimpered out in agreement,

Jane eyed him for a long while before she leaned in close, "Don't you EVER come around here again. Next time you won't be walking away." Arvo nodded rapidly and Jane let him go. He limped as quickly as he could down the stairs and back towards the woods where he emerged in the first place. Molly watched him until she couldn't see before looking back to Jane who was leaning against the railing, holding her head in shame.

"Just what the hell was that exactly?" Molly asked with his face tightened with anger,

"I needed to make sure he wasn't going to come back here!" Jane shot back. Jane pushed past Molly, "Go bring the meds back to the others, I'll work on getting this place open." Molly watched her for a second before heading down the stairs.

As she reached the brick ruins Luke caught up with here, "Molly hey, any luck? Was checking with the others, said they hadn't heard from ya'll yet. I wouldn't guess there'd be much but Jane seems pretty resourceful."

"She's working on getting into it right now, it's locked up tight." Molly replied with a dejected tone,

"You know I can't figure her out, like she lays it on the line but never shows you anything at the same time." Luke said as he pulled the strap of the Ak over his shoulder, "What do you make of her?"

"I don't know." Molly said quickly,

Luke let out a slow sigh, "Listen I know you, Lee and Kenny got a history but those two...they aren't looking so good. Kenny seems broken and Lee he's doesn't seem to have it all together."

"And you're any better?" Molly said with an icy tone,

"Whoa, whoa, that's not what I'm saying. I just want to survive and that means picking the right side." Luke quickly stammered back,

"No Luke, that's not what it means! You don't start drawing a line in the sand to split the group!" She shot out causing him to back up a bit with a shocked expression,

"I...I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. I was just talking." He said trying to calm her,

Molly turned away from him, "I should tell the others about the deck."

"Yeah, I'll be back over there in a few." Luke said quickly. Molly pushed past him and continued back towards the rest of the group as Luke looked up at the gift shop for a moment. He then headed up towards Jane.

 **Alright so things are falling into place, next chapter will be big so be ready for that and after that I feel a lot of you will be surprised. I hope you all liked this chapter and I'll catch you in the next one!**


	20. Observations

CosmicArmor- **I see the sting of what those two characters did in cannon is still strong. Not saying I like them either, could do without both those characters honestly. Also can't stop the teasing with the author's notes, too much fun!**

The Good The Bad The X-boy- **Luke is wary for sure, not really confident in Lee leading the group. Also with the meds, people really need them this time around but Lee stole stuff the group needed and it all fell apart because of that.**

Guest- **Sorry for the wait, hope it's worth it though.**

Smeake- **Thanks man, as always.**

Cutie- **Give or take that is what happens when you're nice Kenny. If you let him talk and express what's on his mind he calmly tells you how he really just hates his life as it's non stop punches at him.**

Kamsko- **Will do, thanks for the review**

Worker72- **I figure that he may have been stashing them there then going to grab the rest of his group, in an attempt to stop them from being stolen. And I agree with hiding until he left but even in game he will just suddenly spot Clem and force the full scene to play out.**

Guest- **Well thank you for taking the time and showing your support my friend. Hope you like this chapter as well!**

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 **Enjoy**

Lee, Clem, Mike and Bonnie all slowly approached the large museum which sat inside a heavily windowed building. Lee scanned the area trying to make out any walkers or, god forbid, people inside. Mike slowly moved up next to him, "What do you see?" He asked,

"No much, place looks like shit though. Almost all the windows are broken not to mention how open it is, we couldn't stay here even if we wanted to." Lee replied with a frown,

"We gotta look around, there still could be something here." Mike said firmly,

"Fair enough, let's look around." Lee said as he stood up and lead the others out of the brush. Mike and Bonnie moved ahead while Lee lagged behind with Clementine, "Just like old times huh?" He said with a little smile,

"You know we never really had good luck with searching together." Clementine replied with a grin,

"Oh we had luck with the searching part, we just never had any with safety. Always had to deal with some damn walkers." Lee said with a little shake of his head,

"Swear." Clem said with a sarcastic look,

"Please tell me I'm not still on that watch." Lee replied causing Clementine to laugh. As they walked inside the museum Lee put his hand on Clem's shoulder and stopped her, "Listen, I know we haven't had much time to really talk with everything that's been going on. But you know that if you need to talk about something you can talk to me right?" Lee said sincerely,

"Yeah?" Clem replied with a slightly confused look, "Why are you telling me this?"

Lee let out a little sigh and knelt down, "It's just, you've been through a lot in the last few days and I don't know how you're doing. You haven't really told me, you know?"

"Oh." Clementine replied. She slowly rubbed her arm with her hand before continuing, "I just, I'm doing my best to handle it myself."

"Okay." Lee said with a nod before stopping. He rubbed his eyes and said, "Listen I know i'm not the same guy you remember but I still love you Clem. I'm here whenever you need me, for anything." Clementine let out a small smile and reached out pulling Lee into a supportive hug. Lee put his arm around her and held her tight for nearly a minute before the finally separated. Lee stood up and sniffed a bit, "Right, now lets see what we can do here." He said as he walked forward.

Lee headed over to Bonnie while Clem moved over to Mike. Bonnie noticed Lee and headed over to him quickly, "What's up?" She asked expectantly,

"Since you got the rifle I want you watching the woods for us while we search. Last thing we need is something sneaking up on us." Lee said firmly,

"Was just thinking the same thing, just leave it to me." Bonnie said confidently as she walked towards the front of the museum and began to watch the tree line. Lee watched her for a moment before turning away, starting to search around the small displays for anything useful.

In the meantime Clementine had already started to search around the building as well, being close to Mike he spoke up to her, "I sure hope we find something for everyone back at camp." He said with an almost pessimistic tone,

"Me too." She replied as she moved over to another display. She continued to move past the cannons and map layouts. She suddenly spotted a small gift shop stand with a bust of a civil war general. She let out a childlike smile as she moved over to it and began to look through the little flags and key chains. Her smile widened as she spotted a specific keychain, she picked it up and slipped it into her jacket pocket before moving on.

After another moment Lee picked up a folded jacket from one of the displays, "Not really a blanket but it'll help." He said with a little shrug,

"I'm sure Rebecca with appreciate it." Bonnie added in as she turned back to him. Lee nodded in agreement as he slipped it into his pack. As he turned away to continue to search Bonnie stopped him, "Lee, could you hold up for a second."

Lee turned back to her, "What'd you need?"

"Nothing." She said as she walked over to him, "I just wanted to talk to you for a minute."

"Bonnie, you had the who trip over to talk to me." Lee replied with a slightly suspicious look,

"I know, I wanted to but I was trying to work up the nerve. Listen I just need to say that I am so sorry for what I put ya'll through. I know trust ain't easy to you, and I can imagine what I did to you back at the ski lodge didn't help in the slightest. I just hope that y'all won't always think of me in that way." She quickly said trying to get it all out as fast as possible,

Lee held a silence between them for a moment thinking it all over before saying, "You've got a lot to make up for." He finally said causing her face to drop, "But you're with us now, so you've got more than enough time." He finished causing her let out a little relieved smile,

As Lee and Bonnie talked Mike and Clementine moved over to the small office in the museum, "You know this place is still locked up, chances are if anything is here it'd be inside there." Mike said as he crossed his arms staring at the office.

Clementine looked over to it and saw that while the door was locked the shutter over the courtesy desk wasn't fully down. "Maybe I can unlock the door by putting my hand through the shutter." She said as she walked up to it,

Mike let out a nod, "It'd help out a hell of a lot." Mike said supportively,

Clementine stood up on her toes as put her hand into the office, she let out a little grunt as she tried to reach the lock on the door. "I...can't...reach...AGH!" She shrieked out as a walker took hold over her arm. Lee and Bonnie quickly turned to them and sprinted over,

"Shit Clem, hold on!" Mike shouted as he began to slam his body against the door. Clem continued to yell as she did her best to pull her arm away from the rotting hand the gripped it. Lee and Bonnie quickly reached Clem and started to pull her body back. As she got pulled away the walker's arm slowly got pulled out from under the shutter. Lee quickly grabbed the shutter and slammed it the rest of the way down severing the decayed arm and finally releasing Clementine from its grasp.

"Are you alright!?" Lee exclaimed as he moved to Clem, she let out a quick nod before pointing back to Mike. Lee turned back just as Mike kicked open the door, he watched as Mike grabbed the walker and forced it to the ground.

As Mike held the flailing walker he shouted out, "Someone kill this fucking thing!". Lee quickly moved over and jammed the heel of his boot into it's skull causing a splatter of blood and brains to shoot out hitting both him and Mike. With the walker dead Mike let go of it's shoulders and wiped his brow, "Damn, that was a clo-" He started to say only to feel Lee grab his collar and pulled him to his feet,

"What the fuck were you thinking!?" Lee shouted as he pressed his arm to Mike's throat pinning him to a wall, "You almost got her killed!"

"I didn't know!" Mike exclaimed as he pushed against Lee's arm, "She thought she could get the door unlocked!"

Lee kept his eyes locked on Mike while his face was stuck in a rage induced anger. After a few seconds he realized what he was doing and pulled away from Mike, "I'm sorry." He said slowly,

Mike held his throat coughing for a moment before saying, "It's-it's fine." A bit gruffly, "But jesus man take it easy. I wouldn't try to hurt anyone."

"I know, I was still...reacting to everything. I shouldn't have done that." Lee replied,

Mike took a few slow breaths before his eyes flickered over to two large jugs of water, "At least it was worth all the trouble." He said as he got to his feet. Lee walked over to the water and started to grab it with his one arm, he let out a grunt and did his best to lift it, "I got it man, don't worry." Mike said as he walked over and picked up both jugs before walking out of the room. Lee stood there for a moment and shook his head angrily as he stared at his stump before walking out of the room himself.

As Lee left the room he followed Mike over towards the front of the museum, as Mike slowly put the jugs of water down he let out a little sigh, "We're gonna have to be conservative as hell."

"We'll work out a plan, ration it between everyone evenly." Lee replied,

"Yeah, but Rebecca's gonna need more." Mike pointed out before looking around, "That baby is gonna be hard on everyone, Rebecca especially and between you and me, she's not looking to good."

"I know, but we'll help her through it. Then we'll figure out where to go next." Lee said in response only to stop as he heard Clem let out a little noise. They looked over and saw her and Bonnie waving them over while also telling them to stay quiet. They both slowly moved over to the girls and slowly crouched down as they saw a raccoon standing by the back door rubbing it's head.

"Walked in like it owned the place, figure it could make a nice meal." Bonnie whispered over to them,

"We can eat raccoon right?" Clem asked Lee,

Mike quickly peered up and stared at the raccoon, "I'd eat the shit out of that raccoon." He said with a husky breath. Everyone looked up at him with raised brows, "Not like that...I just meant i'm really hungry." Mike stammered back to the others amusement,

Suddenly the walker let out a squeal before jumping away, "Shoot, don't let it get away!" Bonnie shouted as everyone got up,

After a moment of looking Clem pointed to the right, "There it is!" She exclaimed,

The group ran towards it attempting to catch it yet it simply jumped around and ran through their legs. Clementine dove after it but she missed and it quickly ran out the museum. It turned back and hissed at everyone while Mike quickly pulled out his pistol. Lee shot his hand out and pushed Mike's pistol down, "Not with all the walkers around." Mike slowly lowered his pistol completely.

The raccoon slowly ran away along with a few of its children which were waiting for it outside. Clementine let out a smile seeing the family leave, "Is it bad i'm happy we failed?" She asked as she watched them disappear into the brush,

"No, that's alright sweet pea." Lee said with a warm smile on his face. Another moment passed before Lee spoke, "Alright, let's get moving." He said as he lead the others back towards the water and then back down the road towards camp.

The four of them made there way back to camp within an hour just as the sun was dropping and the sky began to cloud up, "You still okay Mike?" Bonnie asked as they reached the camp outskirts,

"Yeah, I could do this all day." Mike said with a weak laugh before grunting a bit.

Just then they both heard Rebecca cry out in pain, Lee, Clem and Bonnie quickly ran over to them as Mike walked over to put the water down. As they ran over to her Lee noticed Molly who was stitching up Nick's bullet hole. He stared at her confused as Kenny spoke to Rebecca, "Just stay calm, and keep breathing like I told you."

"Molly...where'd you get the medical supplies?" Lee asked as he watched her slowly wrapping up Nick's arm,

Molly looked over to him and her eyes went wide a bit, "Oh, Lee you're back! Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Lee replied, "But where'd you find all that stuff?"

"Oh it's just...I found it-" She stammered back only to be cut off by Sarah,

"Clem-Clementine!" Sarah screamed out causing everyone to turn to her and see the dozens of walkers approaching the group,

"Oh fuck me!" Molly exclaimed as she got to her feet,

"How the hell did they sneak up on us!? Where is Luke?!" Lee shouted out as he looked around angrily,

"Lee, we've got to do something." Clem said as Kenny slowly stood up.

He reached down and picked up his crowbar, "Get the baby to safety." Kenny said with a low tone before he walked towards the group of walkers,

Lee reached to his belt and pulled out a hatchet, "Go, get to the gift shop, we'll be right behind you."

"Lee, no! You can't just-" Molly began to protest,

"We don't have time, they'll protect us." Clem said as she took her hand and pulled her back towards the gift shop.

Molly grimaced before turning away and leaving Kenny and Lee behind. The two men moved forward and quickly slammed their weapons into the first walkers that reached them. Lee kicked his walker off the hatchet while Kenny let his walker fall to the ground before he began to repeatedly smash its face it. Lee looked around and saw that the amount of walkers could surround them too quickly. He quickly moved over and grabbed Kenny's shoulder, "We gotta move, come on!"

Kenny looked up at the walkers before let out a grunt and spinning around following Lee towards the gift shop. The two men quickly caught up to the rest of the group who were slowly moving up the stairs with Rebecca. Mike moved along the secondary entrance to the building and quickly jammed the shutters down. Everyone slowly filed into the gift shop only to See Luke and Jane fixing their clothes, "Luke?" Clementine asked confused,

"C-Clem? What's going on?" Luke asked as he jumped to his feet,

"What's going on!?" Lee shouted out, "I'll tell you what's going on, were running from walkers that you were suppose to be on the lookout for!"

"I mean really what the fuck were you doing?!" Kenny spat out,

"What? J-just hold on, tell me what's going on!" Luke exclaimed with a irritated look towards them,

"What's going on is you're a reckless fucking moron." Kenny grumbled back as he helped Rebecca lay down,

"Walkers are right behind us! We have to keep them from getting in here." Clementine quickly explained,

"Oh fuck, i'm sorry." Luke quickly said,

"They're coming up the stairs!" Mike called out from the observation deck,

"Okay maybe we should-" Luke started to say only for Lee to grab his shoulder,

"You want to help them help us outside!" Lee shouted as he pulled him along.

Clementine looked down at Kenny and quickly said, "I'm going outside to help them."

"Go, I got Rebecca. I've been here before." Kenny said mostly to himself as he looked down at Rebecca,

As Clem ran to the deck she saw the walkers at the top of the stairs pressing against the metal gate. Lee pulled out his pistol, "We need to control this quick, shoot them!"

Luke ran over and handed Clem a pistol, "Make 'em count, we don't got a lot of ammo."

Everyone put up their guns and began to take shots hitting walker after walker, yet no matter how many they hit they continued to pile at the gate. Rebecca let out some screams from the inside as she was finally in the final stages of birth. "There's too many!" Jane shouted out as she lowered his pistol.

Lee saw the gate started to bow inwards, he quickly ran forward and slammed his weight against the gate. Luke looked around and saw Nick and Sarah staring at the others, "Get inside, now!" He shouted before pulling out his machete and running up to the gate. While Lee, Mike and Jane pushed against the gate Luke jammed the machete through the gate killing as many walkers as he could.

Clem looked over and saw a cannon that they could use to block the door, "Luke!" She shouted getting his attention. She simply looked over to the cannon and he nodded, the two sprinted over to the cannon and slowly turned it around before pushing it towards the gate. Suddenly they all heard a snap as the cannon fell through the deck. Everyone pulled away as the right hall of the deck and stairs collapsed under the weight. "Oh shit!" Clem shouted as everyone dove towards the gift shop entrance as the support cable on the right snapped.

Lee stumbled back and tried to get to the sturdy ground. Both he and Jane failed and started to fall, "Lee!" Molly shouted out and jumped out grabbing onto his arm. Luke took hold of Jane and pulled her up as Lee dangled below the edge, "Y-you're not going anywhere!" Molly grunted as she grinded her teeth trying to hold his weight,

Lee tried to pull himself up but couldn't get the strength, Clementine crawled over and grabbed his arm as well, "Help us!" She shouted out. Mike ran over and reached out grabbing his arm as well. The three let out a groan as they slowly lifted Lee up onto the desk as the walkers below slowly started to crawl up the now sloped deck.

As Molly pulled Lee into her arms and held him tightly Clementine looked around at the others, "Oh shit, we gotta drop the rest of the deck." Luke said as he watched the walkers,

Clem got up and looked at the second support wire, "Mike, give me a boost!" She quickly said as she grabbed Lee's hatchet. Mike nodded and lifted Clem onto his shoulders, Clem wasted no time and began to slam the hatchet onto the wires connector to the building. After a few chops the extra weight on that wire combined with the now weakened connector snapped off and dropped the rest of the deck.

Mike slowly set Clem down while everyone else stared at the walkers below them, the events were slowly settling into everyone's mind and finally the silence was broken by Sarah's voice. "Oh-oh no."

The others turned back only to see Kenny holding Rebecca's baby who still hadn't takens its first breath. "No...not again." Clem whispered out as everyone went very silent. Suddenly the baby let out a little cough and took a deep breath before crying. A look of relief washed over everyone's face before they all moved into the gift shop.

Nearly an hour two hours past as everyone settled in and sat in silence, waiting for the walkers to move away, which to their luck they had already begun to do. Clementine sat across from Rebecca, she watched her holding her baby which was wrapped up in a small towel no, "Clem." She whispered out, "Do you want to hold him?"

"I don't know…" Clem said nervously,

Just then Lee's soft voice spoke out, "Go on sweetie, you can do it." He said as he slowly sat up trying not to wake Molly, who slept next to him. Clem let out a smile and moved over to Rebecca, she carefully handed the baby over to her. Clem let out a warm smile as she held the baby close in her arms, "A natural." Lee whispered out,

"Yeah, he likes you too." Rebecca agreed as Clem let out a short laugh. She let let out a visible shiver, "Damn it's cold."

Lee quickly turned around and grabbed the civil war jacket from his pack, "Here, sorry they were out of union." He said with a smirk as he moved over and handed it to her,

"You think I care about that?" She replied with a smirk,

Just then Kenny walked into the room from the outside, he had opted to take watch on the small amount of deck that was left. "What are y'all doing?" He asked as he walked over, "You should be sleeping, especially you." Kenny said to Rebecca, "Let me take him so you can get your rest."

Clem slowly handed Kenny the baby and he let out a smile as he held it close, "When was the last time you slept Kenny?" Rebecca asked with a concerned tone,

"Oh, about two years ago." He said with a smirk, "I'm fine."

"Good, we need to talk." Lee said as he slowly got up,

Kenny looked at Lee for a moment before nodding, "Don't worry about us, just get some sleep."

Rebecca let out a nod as Lee and Kenny slowly moved out of the gift shop. They both moved over to the second room, "Alright what's up?" Kenny asked with a raised brow,

"We need to talk about what we do tomorrow." Lee replied as he peered outside starting to see some snowflakes falling, "We need to get somewhere safe and where we can get warm. Like it or not we're already in winter."

"I know, I was thinking about that town." Kenny said with a motion towards the other side of the river, "We could at least find some food." Lee turned and went silent for awhile, clearly holding back. "What are you thinking Lee?"

Lee turned back and moistened his lips before saying, "I'm not thinking about anything, I'm gonna tell you what we do tomorrow." Kenny let out a frown,

"And what's that?" Kenny asked back,

"We're going back to Howe's." Lee said sternly,

"Carver's place?! Why the hell would we do that?!" Kenny exclaimed,

"It's not Carver's place anymore, in fact it's no one's. The walkers should be mostly gone, it's already got defenses in place not to mention the stockpiled food and ammo. This isn't up for discussion Kenny, we're doing this." Lee said with a hard glare,

Kenny pursed his lips for a minute, "Fine we can go back, but we shouldn't stay. Wellington is still out here, and that place is a hell of a lot better than that place ever could be." He said before pushing past him. As Kenny headed to around the corner Luke came walking over to the Lee.

"What, uh, what were you talking about?" Luke asked,

"We're going back to Howe's tomorrow. It's our best chance." Lee replied,

"What?" Luke said surprised, "Rebecca needs rest, she's in no condition to travel."

"It's not that far and once we get there she'll be safe." Lee retorted, "Or would you rather her stay here with no food, or warmth." Lee asked with a glare, "Or maybe you just want to stay here longer since it holds so many fucking memories for you." Lee shot out,

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Luke asked as he crossed his arms,

"What do you think, you had one job today and that was keep an eye out for walkers." He snapped out causing Luke to lower his head in some shame, "But instead of doing that you snuck off to tumble around like a fucking kid, someone could have fucking died Luke!" He shouted out,

"I know that!" Luke exclaimed, "I am so fucking sorry about that but-"

"But nothing Luke! This isn't a game, we got one fucking chance here and you almost fucked that up!"

"Look!" Luke shot out, "I get it, I fucked up. But Jane made an offer and I'm sorry but I took it. In case you haven't realized everything is shit! So forgive me for trying to forget about it five minutes!" Luke screamed out at Lee,

Lee's face tightened up for a moment, "Fine, I'm done talking about this. Just know you do anything to put this group in danger again and you'll pay for it." He replied icily before pushing past Luke and heading back into the gift shop.

 **Alright everyone Chapter 20! So here we are, shocker no one died this time around on the observation deck and second surprise, the bigger one, the group returns to Howe's next chapter. I am finally taking the story out of the canon storyline meaning anything can happen from here on out, so get ready for that. Anyway tell me what you thought about this chapter or on the new route Lee is taking the group, I'm eager to hear what you think!**


	21. A Day Of Peace?

The Good The Bad The X-boy- **You will have all your answers in good time, I have had this part of the story planned out for so long and I'm so ready for this to be written. Hope you enjoy it as well.**

TheNameShion- **Ah, glad you like Day's We've Lost. It's probably my favorite one I'm writing since I have access to so many characters. But with this one Lee, being one of the few to think ahead but also direct, realizes that at the very least they need to go back and get supplies.**

CosmicArmor- **Luke, an idiot...yeah I can see that. He is a nice one though, Jane however not really an idiot just very selfish. Anyway hope you like the new non canon part of this story.**

Smeake- **Thanks man, fixed that, hate when simple stuff slips through the cracks. Also glad that everyone seems to be quite accepting to the idea that the story is out of canon. Hope you like it.**

Guest- **Sorry for the wait, hope you enjoy it bud. Thanks for the review.**

Worker72- **Ah I love the constant flow of Jane hate from everyone haha, every chapter since she showed up it's been a running thing and I can't stop laughing. Anyway back to the point Sarah and Nick can add to the story and you never know what could happen with the group at Howe's whether they are going to stay, make a quick stop.**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

Lee slowly lead the group through the woods back towards Howe's Hardware, each of them clutched their shoulders as snow came down around them, Rebecca however clutched her newborn baby. Some like Nick had nothing but their shirts to warm them others like Kenny had only thin jackets. In the hours that past the cold had begun to overtake the group, Rebecca the worst. "How much further do ya think we got?" Kenny asked Lee quietly,

"Maybe thirty minute, just hold it together." Lee replied firmly as he pushed past his body willing him to stop,

"I hope we still got thirty minutes in us." Kenny muttered lowly to him,

"This is-this is stupid! We should have waited, Rebecca isn't doing good and this storm is only making it worse!" Luke exclaimed suddenly,

"Keep your mouth shut and keep moving." Kenny shot back quickly,

"What is it with you guys?! You don't even ask, you just go around barking orders!" Luke immediately returned with,

Lee made a sudden stop causing the whole group to halt, "Alright genius, what do you want us to do? Go back, go another direction? I am leading us to a shelter that will have food, water and medicine and you want to tell me I'm doing something wrong. So come on, tell me. What the fuck should we be doing?!"

"I-I..." Luke replied meekly as he avoided Lee's gaze,

"Luke, Lee is trying to help us. We need to listen to him." Clementine said firmly,

Luke looked down to her yet before he could talk Rebecca let out a pained moan as she fell to her knees. The three men quickly stopped and ran over to her as Mike helped her over to a nearby stump, "I just...I just need a minute." She mumbled out,

"Of course, of course. Take your time." Lee said softly,

"Here let me take him." Kenny said as he reached his hands out for Rebecca's baby, "Just let you rest."

"No, it's okay I got him." Rebecca said weakly,

"You need your rest, I got him." Kenny said easily to her,

"She doesn't want to give you the baby Kenny, don't make it weird." Luke snapped over to Kenny,

"It's not your baby Kenny." Clementine added on more concerned than angrily,

"I...I was just trying to help." Kenny replied lowly clearly hurt,

"Everyone relax." Lee said as he glance back, he put his hand on Rebecca's head and shook his head, "Molly, did you find any anti-fever in all that medicine you found?"

"Uh…" She replied as she dug through the bag quickly, "Yeah, yeah, here." She said while handing him a bottle,

Lee popped open the bottle and took out two pills, "Here take these." He said as he carefully put them in her hand. As she shakily brought her hand to her mouth Lee grabbed his bottle of water and brought it to her lips. She took a small sip and quickly coughed and spurted up a bit of the water, "Hey, hey, easy, nice and slow." Lee said softly to her,

"T-thank you." She murmured to him,

"Listen Rebecca you can't sit here but you are in no position to start moving. Give Kenny your baby, let him carry him while Mike carries you. Once were at Howe's you can rest with him, I promise." Lee pleaded with her,

Rebecca let out a soft smile, "You should show this side of you more often, you're sweet." She whispered out weakly,

"I'll work on that." Lee said with a little chuckle, "Now, what do you say?"

Rebecca slowly lifted her head causing the light to hit her very pale face, "As long as muscles doesn't drop me."

Lee looked up at Mike with a bit of an amused smirk, "Think you can handle that?"

"Yeah, I got it." Mike said with a little nod.

Kenny walked over and Rebecca carefully handed him her baby, "Gonna have to give this little guy a name." He said as he rested him in his arms close to his chest,

"AJ." Rebecca said as Mike slowly lifted her up,

"Huh?" Kenny asked as he turned back to her,

"Alvin Jr. He should be named after his dad…" Rebecca answered softly as she rested her head against Mike's chest,

"AJ, it is then." Kenny said with a nod,

"C'mon, we need to get moving. We're almost there." Jane interjected,

"She's right, let's keep moving." Lee agreed as he stood back up.

The group once again began to trudge through the snowy woods towards Howe's. A silence lingered between the group, Luke, Bonnie and Mike were a bit off put by Lee and Kenny. Nick and Sarah however were both silent focused on themselves, Nick's arm had improved but the infection still had him weak and Sarah was still in no condition to even be alone for a few minutes.

Finally forty five minutes later the group finally saw the building coming into their view, "Thank god." Molly muttered out. Lee held the group back and slowly scanned the area, the snow storm made it a hard to see but he couldn't see any lingering walkers. "What are you thinking?" She asked as she moved over to him,

"That we need to be careful." He replied lowly before turning around to face the group, "Listen up guys, I'm not seeing any walkers around the perimeter but we have no way of knowing what's inside. I want to take a small team inside to check and clear it while the others stay here. Luke I was hoping you'd be up for it."

Luke looked over at him surprised, "Uh, yeah. I'll go." He stammered back to him,

"Good, Kenny I want you back here, watch over the others. Still could use one more." Lee said scanning the group,

"Why you looking over there, i'm right here." Molly said with a little nudge to his side,

Lee let out a smirk, "Okay, Molly, Luke and I will clear the building. I want you all to stay calm and stay very quiet. If we aren't back in thirty minutes then something has gone wrong. I don't want you to all come running, if you have to send one person to come check on us but no more than that. Jane, Bonnie, Clem I'm counting on you three to protect the others."

"You got it." Bonnie said with a nod,

"Okay Lee." Clementine said sternly as she pulled out her hatchet.

Jane let out a silent nod to him, "Alright, let's do this." Lee said turning back around leading both Luke and Molly towards the building.

The three of the them slowly approached the back of the building, Lee carefully walked over the few fallen walker corpses that still laid on the parking lot. His stomach curled into knots as he was able to spot the very little that remained of Sarita, Carlos, their bodies now eaten leaving only bones and blood all over the pavement. "Jesus." Luke whispered out as he covered his mouth,

"I know, just don't look." Lee whispered back to him as the slowly reached the loading dock doors. The three of them slowly pulled themselves into the building, as they entered Lee crouched down and paused listening closely. He slowly moved deeper into the building and paused as he heard a little groan. He peered back and saw Luke looking at him, yet just Luke, "Where's Molly." He quickly whispered out,

Luke looked at him confused and turned around, "I don't know. She was right behind me." He said while holding a perplexed look,

"Fuck." Lee hissed out as he looked forward once again, "We aren't alone in here."

Luke slowly reached for his machete and unsheathed it, "I don't hear many, maybe half a dozen."

"Yeah...god dammit where did Molly go?" Lee grumbled to himself as he took out his hatchet,

"Maybe she went back or circled around somewhere. Look man if we can clear the building we can get the others in here and look for her but we can't do it if these things are lurking around." Luke quickly said trying to get Lee back on point,

Lee let out a sharp exhale and shook his head, "Yeah, you're right. Let's do this, quick and quiet." He said as he slowly turned his head back towards the noise of shuffling walkers. As much as he wished he agreed with Luke, all he wanted to do right now was stand up shout for Molly and tear this place apart until he found her. Yet he couldn't, he thought back to all the others counting on him, he had to do what was best for them not himself. Lee motioned his head telling Luke to move up, the two men slowly moved out of the loading docks and into the main store front.

Luke eyes immediately fell on a few walkers that lumbered down the aisles of the store aimlessly. Lee on the other hand saw a walker that sat against a shelf with a bloated gut and blood dripping from it's mouth. He slowly moved to it and the gluttonous walker could barely react as he stood mere inches from it. Lee quickly slammed his hatchet down into the walker's skull killing it instantly. As he ripped the hatchet from the walker's skull Lee heard a little gurgly hiss and turned to his right seeing a walker lumber towards him.

Luke wasted no time and moved from his position right behind it, by the time it covered half the distance to Lee, Luke was able to jam his machete through the back of the walker's skull, forcing it out of it's mouth. Lee moved back to Luke as he pushed it off his machete letting it tumble to the floor. He gave him a thankful nod and entered an aisle quickly. The men quickly started to pick off the few walkers that lingered around the store, and after ten minutes the storefront was clear. "I think we're good." Luke said to Lee as he stood up and put his machete back into its sheath,

"Well we're gonna need to triple check this place, we need to be sure." Lee said a bit defiantly but in no way agitated towards him,

"Course, but I think we can bring the others in from the cold," Luke said as he and Lee slowly walked back towards the loading dock. "What do you th-AGH!" Luke exclaimed as a walker turned the corner just as they entered the room. It's gnarled hand quickly grabbed Luke's shirt and pulled him towards it's hungry mouth. Lee fumbled to grab his hatchet yet the pair suddenly heard a loud crack and a spurt of blood splattered over Luke's face. The walkers hand fell from Luke's shirt and Luke slowly opened his eyes only to see the walker's head pierced with a climber's pick. Molly let out a little grunt as she pulled the walker back and let it drop to the ground, she let out a half yell as she ripped her pick from the walker's skull before letting out a sigh.

"So, I found Hilda." She said with a little smile to Lee,

"You found-are you serious?! You left us and went to get your pick? Do you even know how fucking worried I was, I didn't know where you went!" Lee exclaimed to her. Molly looked at the man not flinching at his tantrum, rather she was almost amused by it. "You could have told me you know! Or better yet you could have waited!" Lee finally finished,

"All done?" Molly simply asked him,

Lee glared over at her and pursed his lips, "Yes I am." He replied sharply,

"Good, so I cleared out the walkers by the infirmary and the armory. I was also able to check Carver's old office, that was still clear. I think this place is good now." Molly explained to the men,

"Yeah I thought that too." Luke muttered out as his eyes stayed glued on the walker on the floor,

Lee took a slow breath, "I was telling Luke we need to do double and triple checks, last thing we need is one of these things sneaking up on us or worse one of the kids."

"Can't argue with that, why don't you two go get the others. I'll watch the door for any lurkers trying to get in." Molly said as she slowly walked back towards the loading dock doors,

"No, you two head back and grab the others. I'm gonna stay back check around again." Lee replied,

"Fair enough, we'll be back here in a minute." Luke said as he jumped from the loading docks,

"Be safe." Molly said to Lee as she followed Luke out,

As the two headed back across the parking lot Lee turned around and began to walk through the store again. As he reached the pen he glanced in only to see the bodies of Troy and Carver still laying on the ground. Lee glared at the two men hardly, his face hardening before turning away from them. He slowly began to walk down the isles, he noted that a large amount of food had gone missing, and come to think of it the truck that brought them all here from the ski lodge was missing as well. Just then Lee heard a large crash, the sound reverberated around the store, "The hell?" Lee asked as he quickly pulled out his pistol from his belt.

Lee slowly made his way towards the back of the building, listening closely for the shuffling feet of a walker. As he made it to the armory, another loud crash was heard, this time Lee could tell that it was coming from the roof. He quickly headed towards the door that lead to the roof, he pulled the door open and held his gun up. No walkers wandered the stairwell, so Lee slowly made his way up the stairs until he reached the roof access door. He pressed his weight against the door and let it creak open, Lee's gun still up expecting the worst.

"C'mon on you bastard!" A muffled voice shouted out before a loud boom,

"Russell stop that man, you're making too much noise." Vince's voice,

"You should listen to him, Russell. We need to just calm down." A woman agreed,

"Shel, unless you both have forgotten Tavia and the others locked us in! All thanks to Vince and Bonnie!" Russell exclaimed,

"Russ, we all agreed that Vince did the right thing last night. And what happened to Carver isn't why we're in here." A man quickly replied,

"I-Yeah I know. It's just, maybe we should have left with her, at least then we wouldn't be in locked in a greenhouse." Russell said a bit calmer,

Lee slowly walked up to the greenhouse, his eyebrow raised, "Vince!? Vince, that you in there!?"

"What the fuck?! Who the fuck is that!?" Someone exclaimed,

"Wyatt, shut up." Vince said as he walked towards the door, "Lee, that you!?"

"Yeah, what the fuck happened?!" Lee asked as he gave the door a once over,

"They locked us in!" Another girl replied, with a little sarcasm in her voice,

"I can see that, who?!" Lee called back as he put his gun away and reached for a piece of wood jamming between the door handle.

"Tavia, she was Carver's second in command. When the herd started to break away she and the others wanted to leave. We didn't, when they said they were taking the truck and as many supplies as they could take...well they figured it was easier to just lock us in here." Vince said as Lee struggled to unjam the door.

"Hang on, I almost got this fucking thing." Lee grunted in response before finally clearing the door. He then stood up, wiped his brow and pulled the door open. Inside he saw Vince along with four other people. He trusted Vince, but the others, he wasn't sure about. The one thought that rung out in his mind was, _This may be too risky._ Lee glared around the group before looking back over to Vince, "So they locked you five in to...rob you?"

"Yeah, by the end of the night there were only twelve of us left." Vince replied with a nod, "Tavia said this place was done, she was gonna take the truck and leave. The others agreed, they wanted to load up on supplies and go."

"But not you guys huh?" Lee asked with a little raise of his brow,

"No, we're not fucking stupid." A young girl said with a dry unimpressed look to him,

"Becca!" Shel exclaimed, "Now's not the time for any of your sarcastic shit." She hissed out to her,

"Sorry," Vince said while rubbing the back of his neck, "But what the hell are you doing back here. I saw you guys running through the herd, thought I'd never see you again man."

"We didn't have a choice, Rebecca had her baby, we got no food and it's snowing. We needed shelter." Lee explained as he walked towards the edge of the roof, peering out seeing the others walking towards the building. He let out a low sigh and peered back to Vince's group, "Listen, I don't want this to get ugly. We want to stay here, and that's what we're going to do." Lee said hardly,

"Yeah, of course. I'm not sending you guys away." Vince said simply,

"Vince! You can't just-we don't even know how many supplies we have left." Russell quickly chastised,

Lee narrowed his eyes a bit towards the kid causing Vince to quickly jump in to defuse any growing tension, "Easy guy," He said as he raised his hands slowly, "We can ration, no way Tavia took everything."

"She didn't, I saw most of it while **we** cleared the building out." Lee replied while his gaze stayed locked on Russell,

"It's our stuff." Russell retorted,

Lee couldn't help but smirk at this comment, "Yeah? That counts as yours, while you were up here locked in the broom closet?"

"Listen-" Russell said as he took a step towards Lee,

"Whoa! Everyone chill the fuck out!" Vince exclaimed,

"Seriously guys." Wyatt agreed,

"Look, we can work together here. This doesn't have to be two groups under one roof. Carver is gone, Tavia is gone, the community is gone. This building is empty right now,no one to run it, we can protect it together." Vince said while looking between Lee and Russell,

"He's right," Shel said while taking a step forward, "We can rebuild, turn this place into something better than it was. Lee has the people and we got the supplies, this is a no brainer."

"Lee, can you work with that? Can we just keep the fucking peace for one day?" Vince nearly pleaded with him,

Lee looked at him for a moment before glancing around at the rest of the group. He let out a slow exhale, "I need to talk this over with the others, but I can manage one day." He said not very reassuring for Vince but truthful.

Vince grimaced just a bit but steadied himself before nodding. "Alright, I get it." Lee gave him a silent nod before walking towards the roof access,

"Seriously, you're okay with that?" Russell asked with a furrowed brow,

"Lee's a good guy, and so are his group. He'll convince him, just relax alright?" Vince quickly replied with a stern voice,

Russell shook his head and just walked towards the roof access, followed by Wyatt and Becca. Shel hung back for a moment and as soon as the others were out of earshot she looked to Vince, "Do you really believe that?"

Vince let out a low sigh, "I don't know, I hope so, but it's like you said. Lee's got the numbers, if he want's us out of here, he'll get us out." Vince replied in a low voice before following the others to the first floor.

As Lee lead the others to the loading dock, the rest of the group were climbing inside. "What in the fuck?" Kenny hissed out, while his eyes flared up. The group turned and saw Lee, leading Vince's group towards them. "Lee! What in the fuck is this shit?!' He exclaimed while storming towards them,

"Kenny relax." Lee said with a glare, "We don't need to start any problems."

"Don't need to-Lee this is Carver's crew for shit sake!" Kenny exclaimed as he glared at each of them coldly,

"Vince helped us, he fucking saved my life and yours." Lee quickly said in their defense,

"It's true, they're all good people." Bonnie quickly pipped up,

"Besides this is our place, you don't get to make calls on us." Russell spat out to him,

"Excuse me boy? After what ya'll did to us, you're lucky I don't blow your fuckin brains out." Kenny replied as he slowly moved his hand to his side arm,

"Russell shut the fuck up! Look we don't want any trouble." Vince quickly interjected,

"Guys we don't need to be at each other's throats right now." Molly said while looking between the two groups,

"Sound to me like they ain't too friendly." Kenny grumbled out while keeping his eye on Russell,

"Alright that is enough! We are not going to throw down in the middle of this store! We are going to get a fire going, warm up and have a meal. Then we will talk about this and decide things tomorrow. That is what's happening." Lee shouted out in a firm voice,

The groups both slowly seemed to be calming down until they suddenly heard a groan. Then within a second they heard a hiss and a wet crunch was heard while Mike screamed out. The others quickly looked back and they were horrified to see that Rebecca had died in Mike's arms, and worse yet, she had reanimated and sunk her teeth into his neck and shoulder.

 **Alright guys, sorry for the wait. I hope you all liked this one as I sure did, and of course that surprise little ending. You didn't really think so many were going to avoid death like that did you? Anyway I look forward to reading some reviews so I can hear what you think of bringing back the 400 days characters. Until the next ones guys!**


	22. Pull Together

The Good The Bad The X-boy-Aha! **Yes, someone caught the reference to the walking dead show! That was indeed a call to Rick and the prisoners, good eye. And believe it or not I do like Russell, and time will tell if he will only hinder the group or help out.**

Kylegriggs13- **Yeah Mike and Rebecca both bit the dust, no pun intended. As for walking dead main characters, we won't be seeing someone like Rick, but we may see some characters from the books/comics eventually.**

CosmicArmor- **Not trying to defend Russell's aggressiveness here but he does have some warrant being that Lee showed up, told them that everything they had was his now and that they may be kicked out depending on what his group thinks. Both sides are on edge right now. Still, Russell could chill out some; he's only making things worse.**

Smeake **-I had it planned out for Rebecca to die here for awhile but Mike was a bit of a recent idea. Still, I think it works, not everyone should have an intense death. Mike was just unlucky, and when Mike left the group in episode five I can see why he did it, doesn't make it right, but it made some sense.**

Worker72- **Well Mike left in canon due to Kenny's poor leadership ability. I love Kenny to death, favorite character after all, but Kenny can't lead anyone because he can't handle stress. With Lee leading here, him betraying the group was never a certainty, but that doesn't matter anymore…**

Lone Wolf aka Black Hawk Omega- **Well that was a little journey I saw in your reviews haha, glad that my storytelling converted you from not a fan to a fan. Hope you stick around and enjoy where the story goes from here!**

* * *

 **Enjoy**

Mike screamed out and let the reanimated Rebecca drop from his arms. As she fell away, she tore a significant portion of muscle apart causing blood to pour wildly from Mike's neck. He let out a gurgle and stumbled back onto the ground, holding the gaping wound with his right hand. "Mike, Holy Fuck!" Kenny exclaimed,

Rebecca swallowed the flesh she had in her mouth and raised her head, letting out a snarl to the others, suddenly a shot rang out striking her in the temple, killing her instantly. The others looked up and saw Lee, holding Carver's revolver firmly in his hand. A silence hung in the air while they all stared at Lee, the only sound came from Mike, who writhed on the ground. Lee narrowed his eyes, pulling the hammer back on the revolver a second time, and walked up to Mike.

Mike, now laid in a pool of his blood, and let out sputters of blood from his mouth. Lee loomed over him and raised the revolver, so the barrel was level with his head. Mike weakly raised his right hand, extending it towards Lee, but Lee quickly put a round through his head, granting the poor man some mercy. Lee then, without looking back to the others, dropped the revolver and slowly walked upstairs towards Carver's office, leaving the others behind. Each of the survivors looked to one another, each of them not knowing what to say or do.

"W-what happened to her?" Shel asked, finally breaking the silence after a few minutes,

"The cold, the hunger, the birth, take your fucking pick." Kenny retorted before looking over at Luke, "Look, Lee...Lee's needs a fucking minute so looks like me, and you are gonna have to work on getting this place cleaned up."

"Yeah…" Luke said staring at Rebecca's body for a moment before finally looking up at Kenny, "We'll need to drag the bodies out, and get a fire started quickly."

"Let us help with that, it's a lot of work, and it looks like some of you could use a rest," Vince interjected glancing over to Nick who still stood weakly, clutching his shoulder,

Kenny turned his head and glared at the man, despite Vince's help earlier Kenny was still wary. Jane, however, spoke up accepting Vince's help, "Yeah sounds like a plan, why don't you guys help with pulling the bodies out. Me and the kid here can start with the fire." Jane said peering over to Clem,

Kenny let out a short scoff and shook his head, yet to the surprise of the others he let out a nod, "Fine, Clem you take AJ, he needs to get warmed up." Kenny said sternly while carefully handing AJ to Clem. "You too kid, you should go with 'em," Kenny added on looking to Sarah who meekly shuffled over to Clementine.

"Nick why don't you go too, you still need your rest man," Luke said easily to him,

"Molly helped me out; it's feeling better. I can help." Nick replied in weak defiance,

"Nick, you had an infection that probably got into your blood. If you didn't get those meds you might have died already, so what you need to do now is rest and let your body continue to heal." Luke immediately replied firmly,

"Jesus?" Shel pipped in, "Let me take a look."

"What would you know about-" Kenny started to ask while she walked over to him,

"I was Carlos's assistant; he taught me a few things." Shel quickly replied while leading Nick towards the pen, "And infections was one of them."

Luke let out a little thankful nod before looking back towards the main group, "Alright let's get this going, faster it gets done the quicker we can all get warm."

"Well if we're trying to get this done quick then you should have someone on watch for you guys." Becca replied dryly, "Bonnie and I could keep an eye out, so you all aren't expecting to get jumped at any second."

"Sounds smart, easier to work if you feel safe." Bonnie agreed,

"Fine, let's just get a fucking move on." Kenny snapped out while walking towards the pen to grab Carver and Troy's bodies. The others spread out heading to grab a walkers corpse then start dragging them out of the building. Molly, however, took this opportunity to head up towards Carver's office and find out if Lee was alright.

She carefully made her way up the stairs and lightly knocked on the office door, receiving no response. After a moment she opened the door and saw Lee sitting on the floor, leaning against Carver's desk, staring at the floor. Molly stared at him for a few seconds, before walking in and closing the door behind her, "What are you doing?" She asked with a little-raised brow. Lee glanced up at her and let out a short scoff, "Alright, so this is serious." Molly said more to herself then him while she moved to his side, "What's on your mind?"

Lee took in a slow breath and rubbed his brow for a short minute, "I can't do this Molly." He said plainly,

"What, move the bodies, we got all that worked out," Molly replied in a bit of confusion,

"No Molly," Lee snapped back while jumping to his feet, "This! All of this!" He shouted out, "People are looking to me for answers while everyone drops like flies around us! I don't know what the fuck to do, I tried to get us somewhere safe, and now two more of us are dead!" Lee continued, "My life is fucking death, it surrounds me and I can't do a fucking thing about it!" He exclaimed while swiping the papers and notepads off of Carver's desk,

"Lee, calm down. Just take a breath." Molly said while easily putting her hands up, "You've only done what you thought was best for everyone, and we need you more than ever now."

Lee glanced back to her before turning his head back to the desk. His hand rested on the wood, and he let out a slow exhale, shaking his head slowly, "No," He finally said in an eerily calm voice, "I can't do this, I won't."

"Lee, you-" Molly tenderly said only to stop as he held up his hand. She stopped, letting out a sharp exhale, "Fine, you want to be like this then stay up here." Molly shot out as she swung open the office door, "Be selfish." She added on before leaving the office.

Molly made her way down the stairs and headed towards the pen; she could see both Jane and Clementine at the firepit. Sarah sat with AJ, her face sunken in and she almost seemed to be lost, she stared out towards the sky her eyes blank as if she wasn't even really there. Molly gave her a short sympathetic look before moving over towards Jane and Clem. As she knelt down, she looked over to see Jane pulling out a small nail file, "Found this on one of those walkers the other day." She said with a grin,

"How does that help us? It's just a nail file." Clementine said with a little scoff,

"Hey, versatility is not overrated. Check this out," Jane said while pulling out her knife and move both of the items of the firepit. She quickly slid the blade over the file, causing a small sprinkle of sparks to fall over the pile of kindling.

"Whoa," Clementine whispered out under her breath as she saw the fire immediately start to take. Molly quickly reached over and began to feed the fire some dry bark while Jane turned over to Clementine with a smug smirk, "I would never have thought of that."

"Well, you gotta start thinking like that kid." Jane said while extending her arm that held the nail file, "The biggest thing about surviving is to find workarounds, nothing is ever gonna go the way you want it to. So you need to be ready to figure out another way to reach your goal." Clementine let out a small nod and took the nail file.

As the three women continued to tend to the fire, making it grow in size and intensity, Kenny walked past them, with Luke pulling a metal cart right behind him. Kenny made his way next to Carver's frozen corpse; he glanced up to Luke who quickly moved over and took hold of the man's feet. "Keep your head down and listen, alright?" Kenny grumbled out as he grabbed Carver's arms,

Luke immediately looked up, a look of confusion prominent on his face, "Huh?"

"Head down asshole." Kenny hissed out causing Luke to lower his head quickly,

"Sorry, but what the hell is this about Kenny?" Luke asked just peering his us up towards the man,

As Kenny lifted Caver's body, he craned his neck, making sure no one was nearby. After a moment he said, "Look, this plan Lee has worked out ain't gonna work. You heard these guys, they don't want us here, and they think they can call the shots on all this shit." Kenny whispered out to him,

"What? Man, I don't know." Luke said with a little grunt while they tossed Carver's body onto the cart, "Sure a few of them are a little rough, but Lee said we could trust 'em. I won't lie, we don't usually see eye to eye a lot, but I know the guy wouldn't be alright with them if they were an issue."

Kenny let out a scoff and shook his head, "You see what's going on with Lee, I'm not sure if he's the one who should be calling shots right now. I mean hell, he's not even here right now, he's up in the office doing god knows what."Luke's eyes widened slightly, and he looked at Kenny in some shock, "Easy boy, I'm not saying Lee's a problem, but the guy's got a lot on his mind. I'm not sure if he's thinking clearly." Kenny quickly said defending his words as just, "And if he's not thinking clearly then he's putting us all at risk."

Luke let out a slightly irritated sigh and rubbed his face, "Man, why the hell are you telling me this?" He snapped out,

"Because we are in a precarious fucking situation right now." Kenny grumbled back to him, "With Mike dead, we just lost some serious fucking muscle. Think about it, Nick and Lee are both fucked up, that just leaves Me, You, Clem and Molly to defend ourselves if these guys get any bright ideas."

"And Jane," Luke said, his brow slightly narrowing,

"Doubt it," Kenny blankly replied while reaching down, taking hold of Troy's mangled corpse, "She's someone who goes with the winner, if things get tough she'll either split or join 'em."

"You don't...you don't know what you're talking about." Luke stammered back, becoming a bit defensive of Jane,

Kenny let out a sharp exhale, quickly becoming agitated, "Yes I do boy, and I need to know your head's on straight if things start to go wrong."

Luke shook his head in response, "Kenny you're looking for trouble right now, nothing's gonna happen."

"He's right Luke." Nick's voice suddenly said making the two men jump slightly. Luke looked up, and Kenny turned his head only to see Nick standing a few feet to the side,

"Jesus man, how long you been there?" Luke asked taking a short breath,

"Long enough to know what you're talking about." Nick replied while walking closer to them, "Kenny's right about these guys, we were part of Carver's crew, we know how they think. Right now, if I were in their situation, it'd be wanting to do whatever I had to so I could come out on top. Letting us in, and taking whatever supplies we need isn't something that'd benefit them."

Kenny let out a smile and nodded his head, "Exactly, push comes to shove I got no doubt in my mind that they'd just be looking out for themselves."

"Seriously guys, talking like this is what causes the problem you're talking about. You start treating them like the bad guys, and that's what they'll become." Luke pointed out,

"Maybe you're right, but it can't hurt for us to be prepared. I mean you saw what Russell was like, the minute he saw us he was pushing us." Nick replied while looking out towards the shop floor where the others continued to drag out walker bodies,

Kenny tossed Troy's body onto the cart while Luke moved over to Nick, resting his arm on his shoulder, "Sure Russell may have been acting tough, but Shel offered to help you and Vince got the others to help us out. You gotta look at it from their point of view; they just don't want us to leave them high and dry." Luke replied with some sincerity before walking back towards the exit of the pen.

As Luke slipped out of the pen, Kenny moved to Nick's side and crossed his arms, "If I can keep these guys busy, think you can get into the armory and get us some firepower?"

Nick, without even looking at Kenny, let out a short nod, "Absolutely."

"Good." Kenny stoically replied, giving Nick a small pat on the shoulder while walking away.

While Kenny prepared for a fight, Vince was doing his best to prevent one. He made sure to keep Russell far away from the others by making him and Wyatt drag the walker bodies to the dumping hole on the far side of the strip. Bonnie and Becca patrolled along the route, keeping them safe but Vince started to grow concerned when Luke began to pull his cart of bodies down to the dumping hole. He wouldn't be able to monitor the people outside; he just hoped that everyone would keep their minds and realize nothing good could come from a fight.

As Vince worked on preparing another cart of bodies for Wyatt and Russell to take down to the dump, Shel came walking over. He turned his head as he heard her steps and stopped working once he noticed her face was showing some worry. "Oh hell, what now?" He muttered out while walking over to her,

"I think we are going to have a problem," Shel said while pulling her hair back and tying it off into a ponytail,

"Tell me about it; I've been doing my best to minimize Russell's interaction with the new guys." Vince agreed,

"That's good, but that's not what I was gonna say." Shel replied while peering over to the far side of the building where both Kenny and Nick were, "Those two, Nick and the one with the beard, they're an issue."

Vince let out a low sigh and rubbed his eyes slowly, "Sonofa-why, what are they doing?"

"Nick doesn't trust us, or at least not all of us, and the other one-" Shel began to explain,

"Kenny." Vince reminded her,

"Yeah, Kenny, he doesn't trust any of us." Shel finished,

"That's a problem, but Lee can handle them. We just need to focus on controlling our people and hope he does the same." Vince said with a small shrug,

"That's just it; Lee isn't even down here. No one has seen him since Mike died, and with him gone it looks like Kenny's the one in charge." Shel replied looking back to him,

Vince ran his fingers through his hair and let out a long exhale, "Fuck, that would be a problem huh?"

"Tell me about it," Shel replied, smirking at him,

Vince looked over at her and after a moment let out a short chuckle, relieving some of his stress. "Right, listen I think what we need to do here is just get as much space between our groups as we can until Lee comes back. The less we see of each other right now, the better, think you can help me out with that?"

"You got it; I'll head outside and do my best to keep everyone separated, besides I should keep an eye on Becca. She can cause more problems than you expect." Shel said causing Vince to laugh once more. Shel returned with a small giggle of her own before moving to the loading dock and hoping down, out of the building.

Nearly three hours past as everyone worked on their given and personal tasks. Jane continued to tend the fire while Molly and Clementine worked on finding more firewood to keep it going. Nick had done as Kenny had asked him and snuck into the armory, he secured a few sidearms for everyone, he did think he could smuggle anything more significant out without being noticed. Meanwhile, the others had finished taking all the dead from the building, Vince had taken a short time also to bring some cots into the pen. Until they had the chance to thoroughly check the whole hardware store and make sure it was secure, the pen was the safest place for them to sleep. Unfortunately, this meant that they'd all be squeezed in one large, not more than twenty feet separating them.

The only person yet to be seen was Lee, he still hadn't come down from Carver's office. Each passing minute served not only to make Molly more and more angry at him but also made the chance of conflict between the two groups even greater. Molly and Clementine had located a pile of chopped wood in the back of the loading dock, they grabbed a few pieces each and began to walk back towards the pen. As they came back into the storefront, Molly glanced up towards Carver's office and noticed Lee looking down over the store. Their eyes met for just a moment before Lee walked from the window, "Fucking asshole." Molly muttered out,

"What?" Clementine asked, her eyes widening in some shock,

Molly shook her hand and looked down at the girl, "Lee, he's just given up. After everything we've been through, he's just stopped. I thought I knew him, but for him to just turn his back on everyone who needs him...I guess I was wrong."

"Molly…" Clementine said a bit weakly,

"What?" She quickly shot back, her eyes flaring up a bit,

"He's not turning his back on us; he can't," Clem replied, though not very convincingly,

"Yeah? Then why hasn't he come down?" Clementine lowered her head, unable to answer her question, "I'll tell you why Clem because he was telling the truth when he told me he was done leading."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Clementine asked in an almost shocked terror,

Molly looked at her and let out a slow sigh, "Listen, just forget about that, ignore me."

"No, you don't just get to say that and then not tell me. What did Lee say to you." Clementine said sharply,

Molly shook her head, annoyed in herself before saying, "It was earlier, I went up to try and talk him into coming down, but he told me he was done making choices. I mean he thinks he can just decide to do that, leave us to deal with this alone." Molly bitterly explained, Clementine's brow narrowed, and she dropped the firewood onto the floor. "What are you doing?"

Clementine pursed her lips and walked past Molly, "I'm going up there and talking to him."

"There's no point, just leave him to stew up there," Molly said dismissively,

"No, he needs to be reminded that there are other people out there that need him." Clementine shot back while storming towards the office. Molly shook her head but turned back towards the pen; she knew that Clem wouldn't stop, she was as stubborn as Lee. Along the way Molly paused once more, noticing a few cans of soup, she grabbed the cans ready to makes some dinner as well.

Clementine in the meantime wasted no time in making her way up the stairs, she burst right into the office and saw Lee sitting at the desk. He raised his head lazily towards her, his eyes were soft, and he let out an almost pained sigh, "Clem...what are you doing up here?"

"I should ask you the same thing!" Clementine shouted out to him while entering the room and slamming the door shut,

"It's nothing; I've just been thinking things over." Lee replied unfazed by her outburst, "You should head back downstairs, get warm by the fire."

"Maybe you should stop being an ass and get the fuck up!" Clementine shot back,

"Excuse me?" Lee said narrowing his eyes, "You need to watch your mouth."

"Are you serious," Clementine scoffed back while crossing her arms, "Lee, you're up here hiding when people need you! You need to stop being a coward!"

"A coward?!" Lee exclaimed while jumping up, "I'm a coward for trying to do what's best for everyone?!"

"Yes, because you think giving up is best! We need you to help us Lee, and you're just-just...hiding!" Clementine shouted while walking towards him,

"You don't understand; I can't help anyone! I can only get them killed!" Lee finally screamed back, "Carly, Ben, Walter, Matthew, Mike, Rebecca, that's on me, Clem! And I can't have any more people on my head; I just can't!"

Clementine's eyes instantly went soft, and she lowered her arms, "Lee," She sympathetically said, "That's not your fault, people die, there's no one to blame for that. A-and you do help, you help everyone. Especially me! We need you, someone who can protect us can think of everyone, not just a few." Lee let out a slow sigh, rubbing his eyes, "Lee, please, we can't do this without you...I can't."

Lee went utterly silent and leaned against the desk for a minute. Clementine stared at him, internally hoping that he'd change his mind. Finally, he looked back towards the window before turning back towards her, "What's going on down there anyway?"

"What do you think?" Clementine said with a little shrug, "Everyone is looking for someone to tell them what to do."

Lee let out a small nod and stepped away from the desk, "Look, I don't know about me doing all this alone again. I think I'll need some help, maybe from someone who understands when someone needs to have some sense talked into them."

Clementine let out a small smile, "I can try, at least for now."

"Sounds good, now c'mon, guess I should head down there." Lee calmly said as he walked to the office door, a focused look now on his face. Clementine let out a relieved exhale and followed him out the door.

Meanwhile, at the Penn, things were about to come to a boil. Molly had returned to the fire and began to make the few cans of soup. While everyone gathered around her, ready to grab a bowl once it finished Vince and the others walked in. Russell immediately spotted the soup and his eyes flared up, "Hey, what the hell!? Who told you, you could take that stuff?!" He exclaimed,

"Russell, relax." Vince quickly interjected putting his hand on his chest,

Kenny turned back and slowly got to his feet, a pistol tucked into his jeans, "No one told us because we didn't have to ask." He sharply retorted, Nick got up as well and stood at Kenny's side while Luke got up, his eyes turning a bit fearful,

"C'mon, Y'all, just keep cool," Luke said in a weak attempt to keep peace,

"How many times do we have to tell you, this stuff isn't yours! It's ours!" Russell shouted,

"Russell relax, it's just a few cans of soup." Shel butted in,

"No Shel, that's not the point. Russell is right, they don't ask, we're the ones trying to show some respect to them, but they are just taking what they want." Wyatt pointed out, "Why should we have to back off when they aren't showing us any respect."

"Respect?" Kenny scoffed, "You show us respect when you snatched us up and brought us to this hell hole? The way I see it, you owe us!"

"Besides we cleared this place out, without us you guys would still be locked up on the roof," Nick added on,

"Damn straight." Kenny agreed,

"Man fuck you guys! You didn't have to fight for these supplies; you didn't stay and try and defend this place when a horde came through! You just split and came back, claiming this was yours! Now you're just spitting on us!" Russell shouted pushing past Vince and moving right up to Kenny,

"Hey back off!" Nick shouted out, quickly shoving Russell back,

"Whoa, guys enough!" Vince shouted out while Russell ran back and shoved Nick back,

Just as Kenny reached back for his pistol, Lee and Clementine entered the pen. "What in the hell is happening here!" The others turned towards him before looking back at one another,

"Lee these fucking people don't get it they just-" Kenny started to say,

"Kenny, what did I say, we aren't gonna start fighting each other! I don't know why that's so fucking hard for everyone to understand!" Lee shouted out stopping Kenny dead, "And you, why the hell are you so intent on starting a fight?!"

"Because you people don't know when to-" Russell tried to explain,

"When to stop? Stop what, trying to survive?" Lee asked, "You're asking my group to starve just because you think we're leeches. But we just helped you clear, clean and secured this building." Lee explained while walking towards the center of the pen, "Everyone needs to understand something, Carver was right about something. People are a resource! We need people to make it, we survive by pulling together not apart, think about it! Look at what you accomplished in just a few hours, think about what we could accomplish given a month! Why do we need to put that chance aside to fight?!"

"Listen to him," Vince piped in, "Instead of making a rift we should pull together. We have a chance here, to build something great, something safe!"

Lee nodded in agreement, "So it's time we stop making a threat in here! We should focus on the real threat out there! The dead won't stop coming, bandits and looters won't waste a second to take what we have, and the only way that we can stay safe is if we work together! Just give it a fucking chance! For once try and see the good that can come out of our situation!"

 **Well, that was a fun chapter to write. Full of speeches and intense drama, definitely one of my favorites so far and I hope it was yours as well. I think of this chapter as well as an end to the Carver arch officially; next chapter will be the start of a new journey with different problems and enemies that aren't related to just Carver and Howes. Anyway, leave me a review letting me know what you thought about the chapter, as they always keep me focused and inspired to keep on writing and I will see you in the next one! Also Thank You All For Twenty-One Thousand Views!**


	23. Food And Fuel

The Good The Bad The X-Boy- **I know Lee was kinda acting as leader for this story but I felt that was the event to cement him into the position. He expressed his own fears with the position but accepted that he was the only one who could do it. Now we just have to see how Lee handles new threats in the future.**

Smeake- **Glad to have you along for the ride man, hope you'll enjoy it.**

Sweet Tree- **Thanks, I'm glad you enjoy the premise so much that you feel it should be canon! I hope you enjoy the whole story just as much.**

Worker72- **I felt that Lee needed to connect with someone about his worries and concerns before showing up and being the tough, firm leader they needed. So I'm glad you liked each of the scenes.**

I.C.2014- **Thanks, hope you like this chapter!**

Rev61ever- **It's possible that it could happen eventually, as it would give him some use for his stump, so possibly!**

TerevE eeL- **Here you are, sorry to make you wait, haha!**

Manwiththeplan113- **Yeah, I'll miss him, he was a fun character.**

Ex-Starburn- **Molly could be pregnant, or maybe not, but she and Lee are close enough where they could possibly try for a child when the time was right. Only time will tell what happens to the pair.**

Guest- **Glad you like it!**

Guest- **Hope you like the start of the new arc!**

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 **Enjoy**

Three weeks past as the group assimilated into Howe's, three weeks full of conversation and control for Lee. He had his hands full, convincing the last of Carver's crew that sticking together was a smart idea. He received help from Vince and Shel, but unfortunately, he also gained some headaches from Kenny and Nick. Russell and Wyatt continued to but heads with the two men but fortunately for everyone these events boiled down to little outbursts, reminiscent of Kenny and Lilly at the motel. Unlike the motel, Lee was able to keep them separated and out of each other's way most of the day.

The first week consisted of securing all of Howe's, including the expansion to the comic and convenience stores. Despite having a horde plow right through the strip Howe's stood firm, the building resisted the walkers and didn't buckle in any location. The expansion, however, wasn't as lucky. The simplistic walls were built to hold back small groups of walkers, not hordes and they were quickly destroyed during the initial attack. Despite this the other stores were mostly intact, the windows were broken, but the doors still stood.

Kenny headed up the restoration of the walls while Vince chose to lead up a cleanup detail, salvaging what supplies they could so the wall could be put back up sooner. With the cold, the process was slow going and bled into the second week. As Kenny continued to lead a team to rebuild the wall, Lee had the others work on inventory. He wanted a complete list for everything they still had, whether it be gas, bullets or food. It turned out that wasn't as much as they all expected.

Tavia and the others didn't skimp out when loading up in their truck, they took as much as they could fit. Their gas was down to a mere week if rationed correctly, meaning any power tools had to be used sparingly. Food and water were cut down to maybe a month for all of them, though, thanks to the motor inn, Lee knew he could stretch that much farther than the others could expect. Still, he was hesitant to start cutting rations as that would no doubt stir trouble.

By the third week things began to settle into a routine, the wall still needed work, but at the very least it was standing. Guards were assigned to the roof, bringing some relief to everyone, but with low ammo, any fight would be extremely costly. Despite the problems, Lee remained calm and controlled, he stayed strong showing no fear in their situation, only doing his best to keep the others busy and focused doing more constructive things with their time then worry.

On the morning of the fourth week, Lee and a few others gathered in the office, part of his routine was listening coming up with tasks based off of what he was informed on. Luckily for him, today would be a bit easier than usual, well at least for him. Lee, rested against the desk while Vince, Kenny, and Jane circled around him. "Right, so first things first, Vince, Kenny, how's the wall?" Lee asked looking between the two men sternly,

Vince let out a little sigh and rubbed the back of his neck, "Honestly it's as good as it's gonna get right now, we kinda hit a roadblock with it."

"A roadblock? What do you mean?" Lee asked in turn,

"Look, pal, we've done all we can do by hand, things sturdy alright but it's just wood. Now we made a few plans to put some metal reinforcers on it but to do that we need power tools." Kenny quickly explained,

"Meaning you'll need gas." Jane deduced with a sigh,

Lee returned the sigh and rubbed his brow, "I...I know what you want me to say but I can't. Our fuel is running out, and we need every drop right now to keep the generators running. If they go out so does out heat, and that fire pit won't be able to keep us warm for the rest of winter." Lee explained in a firm denial,

"Yeah, I totally understand that that's why I wanted to take a few guys out and go scavenging." Vince replied, "There's a town not too far out that could hold something still, I don't expect much, but you never know."

"I'll tell you what we could use, some more of those solar panels. A couple more of those and we could get the battery banks charged, solving our power tool issue." Lee thought aloud,

"So that saying you're good with me taking out a team?" Vince asked with a slightly uplifted tone,

Lee looked up at him, eyeing him for a moment before letting out a short exhale, "Who would you take?"

"I'd go," Jane said plainly,

"Must be a fucking miracle, you actually offering to help for once," Kenny grumbled out,

"Bite me, asshole." Jane shot back immediately,

"Alright, enough." Lee sharply said before looking back to Vince, "Two isn't much of a team who else?"

"Well, without leaving you shorthanded, I'd like to take Shel and Russell." Vince replied after a moment of thought, "Shel's been putting together a little list of supplies everyone needs, blankets, formula for AJ, things like that. Not to mention we could use Russell for the muscle."

Lee thought it over for a moment before letting out a nod, they caught a break when Tavia's crew left the formula here, but they were running low if Shel could find more that'd be well worth the risk. Not to mention, Russell going would solve a large part of Lee's day spent micromanaging. "Okay, sounds like a good plan, anything you find could be useful." Lee finally said causing Vince to let out a pleased smile, "But I don't want you guys out long, try to be back by dinner, if not we'll come looking first thing in the morning."

"Got it, Lee, you can count on me, man." Vince said confidently, "Jane let's go and get geared out. We should leave as soon as possible." Vince continued as the two walked out of the office,

Kenny watched the two leave before shaking his head dismissively, "Vince may be a nice guy and all but he doesn't know a damn about character." Kenny said with a scoff,

"What do you mean?" Lee replied, much more at ease now just talking with Kenny,

"Jane, wouldn't take her with me if she was the last person on earth." Kenny answered as he walked over and pulled out a metal chair for himself, "She's one selfish fucking woman."

"Where's this coming from?" Lee asked, not too surprised as Kenny usually had an issue with everyone,

"Whaddya mean?" Kenny asked with a raised brow,

"You haven't said two words about her til today, just seems a bit odd," Lee replied shrugging slightly,

"Didn't have time too, way too busy." Kenny simply said, "Her on the other hand, she's barely pulled her weight these last few weeks. Hell, even Russell's been busting his ass around here, all she does is the easy shit, and now she's heading out for supplies." Kenny said shaking his head clearly irritated, "I'd bet my life that'd she's gonna keep half of what she finds for herself."

"Really, you think that? Luke seems to think pretty highly of her." Lee retorted,

"That's only cause those two had a fucking tumble couple weeks back, Luke's acting like a fucking teenager right now." Kenny immediately shot back,

"Yeah," Lee said with a small nod, that fact seeming so distant in his mind, "Right, but Luke growing up isn't something we can solve today, what are you doing if you're not on the wall?"

"I figure I'd take the kid out and go hunting." Kenny replied returning to his focused state, "With our supply running down a deer could feed us a few days."

"Kid as in?" Lee asked with a raised brow,

Kenny looked at him slightly annoyed, "Billy the Kid, who the fuck you think? Nick."

"Nick? Are you fucking serious?" Lee replied, genuinely surprised,

"Yeah, kid's eager to learn something, figure if I put him on this, at least it'd be a good use." Kenny simply replied, "Besides, I trust him, and he's gotta learn to do something."

Lee smiled ever so slightly and shook his head, "Of course you trust him, you convinced him to steal guns for you."

"Hey," Kenny sharply replied, "I was being prepared, you didn't have your shit together at that point."

"Yeah, right, of course." Lee sarcastically said while standing up, Kenny doing the same, "Let's get down to the armory. See what we can spare for this hunt."

"If I still had my eye, I'd try and learn how to use a bow. I'm lucky my aim ain't shit." Kenny muttered out a bit bitterly as the pair walked out of the office.

As the two men walked downstairs, they walked past what used to be the pen, since their stay it was converted into more a communal area. The firepit still sat in the center, being tended at most times for heat and cooking. Vince had located a few large tables that were moved into the pen so everyone could sit and eat like an actual community, it didn't make it so, but it definitely helped to create that illusion.

Sarah sat at one of the tables, a small crib sat right next to her, holding AJ. Just nearby Clementine and Becca were seemingly sparring, working on moves that would get them out of a person, or walkers, grasp as well as giving them an open hit. Sarah didn't seem comfortable with joining them, and as much as Lee wished that was alright, he hoped the girl would start to learn how to take care of herself soon. "Where's everyone else?" Lee asked as he turned back to Kenny,

"Luke and Wyatt are on watch right now," Kenny replied as he crossed his arms, "Got no fucking clue where Molly and Bonnie went, they were just in the pen watching the girls and Nick...he's...where's that fucker got to?"

"Right behind you, old man," Nick's voice piped in, "Where are you two going?"

"You're coming with," Kenny retorted while motioning him over, "You're coming out with me today, we need to stop at the armory right now,"

Nick's brow raised and he immediately moved to Kenny's side, "Where are we going? What's the situation?"

"The situation?" Lee replied with an almost amused smirk,

Nick looked between both of the men in minor confusion, "If you two are loading up at the armory, something serious has to be going on. Is it the Russell and the others?" He lowly asked while glaring around the building, "I saw Vince gathering up a group, I got no idea what he could be planning but-"

"Whoa, cool your jets," Lee interrupted,

"Ain't no one stirring trouble, boy...well, more than usual at least," Kenny muttered back, "We're going hunting,"

"Hunting...seriously? That's what you need my help with?" Nick nearly scoffed,

Lee narrowed his brow, but before the man could speak, Kenny barked out, "Damn right! We need food, and 'bout time you put in a little effort here. You do know how to use a gun don't ya?"

Nick frowned in response, "Of course I fucking do, I hunted with my uncle Pete plenty of times,"

"You see a problem with us getting food? Is having a full stomach important to you, kid?" Nick continued to frown but nodded, "Then quit pissing and moaning, and come get a fucking gun," Kenny finally finished while reaching over and giving Nick a small shove forward towards the armory, "Or I'll go take someone else,"

"Fine, fine, Jesus," Nick mumbled back to the pair while making his way towards the armory, "Fucking hardass..."

"And you like him?" Lee asked Kenny with a slightly amused smirk,

"Yeah, the kid just thinks he needs to be a hero to be useful. If he were with us in the motor inn, he'd know how important food is, and how one good hunt could change everything," Kenny replied with a thoughtful look,

"I hear that," Lee wholly agreed. As the pair continued to walk, Lee slowed down as he noticed Molly and Bonnie coming towards them, the pair were finishing up a minor conversation, and once Molly noticed Lee, she gave Bonnie a pat on the shoulder and walked over to him. The short blonde woman flashed him a warm smile, "I'll catch up, don't leave until I know what you're talking,"

"You got it," Kenny nodded and walked away from the pair,

"Where are you off too?" Molly smirked, "Finally decided to leave us?"

"Yeah, afraid so..." Lee chuckled back, "Kenny and Nick are going hunting,"

"Really, didn't expect that, Kenny couldn't hunt for shit during our year on the road," Molly muttered as she crossed her arms,

"I know, but Nick has some, and I'm sure the two of them could get something. With the wall on hold, it's the most useful thing that they could do to help us," Lee explained, "By tomorrow if Vince's search goes well, they'll be back on it,"

"Vince is going out scavenging?" Molly asked with a raised brow, "I thought the focus was supposed to be here and here only,"

"We need gas," Lee merely replied, "We don't have a choice, Vince, Jane, Shel, and Russell need to find fuel today or our generators are going to run out in a few days,"

"If that's true, then Vince won't come back without any, he cares about this place as much as you do," Molly firmly replied before letting out a sigh, "Alright, I can't do this...those two aren't going to get a thing, I'm going with them,"

Lee went out a wince and glanced towards the armory, "Molly...you don't have to go...you know I don't want you to,"

"I know," Molly smirked while pushing up and kissing him on the cheek, "If we had it your way, I'd never do anything. I'll see you later today,"

"No, I at least need to see what you're taking," Lee weakly argued,

"Two rifles, twenty rounds and a bow with four arrows. Okay?" Molly replied with a little pat on his shoulder, "Now go on before you start freaking out, I'm sure Clem could use you for something,"

Lee let out a low sigh and looked either way, "Fine...be safe," He warmly told the girl, "I love you,"

"I love you too," Molly warmly replied as she turned away and walked towards the armory, walking inside with a broad smile, "Alright boys, let me show you how to actually hunt," She grinned while picking up her old bow.

 **Alright, sorry for making you wait so long, and I know the chapter wasn't that long but I wanted a nice set up chapter, next one should be focused more on Vince, Shel, Jane, and Russell to breathe some life in the new additions. Anyway if you're happy the story is back and want more, please leave me a review letting me know what you think!**


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